The Nighthawks
by 1980s-popito
Summary: One is having leadership decision making problems, another is relationship problems, another, who even knows?, the other four are just trying to keep their noses clean with the heat between the other three going on... along with an assigned trip to Mexico with their dad's... ya know, just business as usual for the member's of the Nighthawks.
1. Introduction Chapter

**Carter Ross**  
**AGE**: 24  
**PARENTS**: Barney Ross and Angela Scelfo  
**PLACE OF RESIDENCE**: New Orleans, Louisiana  
**PLACE OF BIRTH**: New Orleans, Louisiana

**Lauren Christmas**  
**AGE: **23  
**PARENTS:** Lee Christmas and Rose McMahon  
**PLACE OF RESIDENCE: **New Orleans, Louisiana  
**PLACE OF BIRTH:** Manchester, England, UK

**Krista Jensen**  
**AGE: **23  
**PARENTS: **Gunner Jensen and Ida Handel  
**PLACE OF RESIDENCE:** New Orleans, Louisiana  
**PLACE OF BIRTH: **Los Angeles, California

**Kai Yang**  
**AGE**: 25  
**PARENTS**: Yin Yang and Adelia Chan  
**RESIDENCE**: New Orleans, Louisiana  
**PLACE OF BIRTH**: Beijing, China

**Raina Caesar**  
**AGE**: 24  
**PARENTS**: Hale Caesar and Ashlynn Williams  
**RESIDENCE**: New Orleans, Louisiana  
**PLACE OF BIRTH:** Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

**Julia Road**  
**AGE**: 23  
**PARENTS**: Toll Road and Rosalina DaSilva  
**RESIDENCE**: New Orleans, Louisiana  
**BIRTHPLACE**: Cape Cod, Massachusetts

**Maria Flavin**  
**AGE**: 23  
**PARENTS**: Tool and Angelina Flavin  
**RESIDENCE**: New Orleans, Louisiana  
**PLACE OF BIRTH**: Miami, Florida


	2. Calendar Girl

**Hey! this is my spinoff story of my series 'the teenage mercenary'! while you read this, act like the individual stories of Carter, Lauren and Krista never existed. Here, they all existed at the same time and knew each other. I hope you enjoy my little spinoff and that if you read my other expendables fan fictions that you enjoyed them! Ok! let's get started shall we? :) -RambosDaughter, aka: Sarah Fusaro**

Years later, a new mercenary team has came out of the woodworks. The irony of this new team, they are the second generation of probably the best mercenary team, The Expendables. Each member of this new team is a daughter of each member of the expendables. They did not take the name of their fathers team, they chose the name, The Nighthawks.

Team leader, Carter Ross. Daughter of expendables leader Barney Ross. She met him at age 13 when her mother, who suffered from depression, brought her to Barney. The next day, Angela, her mother, was on the news for a reported suicide. Carter then lived and worked with the expendables until age 21, where she followed in her fathers footsteps and started her own team.

Carter's best friend, Lauren Christmas. Daughter of Lee Christmas, Barney's right hand man and best friend. Came to America from England at age 15 in search of a better, more enjoyable life with her real father instead of mom and step dad. One year later, when she turned 16, she became a full member of the expendables. She is still dating her high school sweetheart, John Latura, but they don't see each other as much as they would like to since he moved to Virginia.

Next is team sniper, Krista Jensen. Daughter of Gunner Jensen, sniper for the expendables. Ran away from her Los Angeles home where she lived with her abusive uncle for two years after her mother was killed in a car accident an he received custody of her.

Then, martial artist, Kai Yang. Daughter of martial artist, Yin Yang. Born in Beijing, China. At age 18, she came to America in search of her father after her mother was emitted into a mental institution as a psychopath.

Then weapons expert, Raina Caesar. Daughter of expendables weapons expert, Hale Caesar. She was born as raised in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. After high school, she planned on going to the military instead of college. When she found out about her father in New Orleans was a mercenary, she let go of her future career and moved farther down south to work with him.

Next is Julia Road. Daughter of demolitions expert, Toll Road. Moved from the cold northeastern state of Massachusetts and went down south to warm Louisiana. By a chance of pure luck, she met her father and works with him in New Orleans when she was 19 years old.

The last member is Maria Flavin. Daughter of tattoo artist and retired mercenary, Tool. She goes on most of the missions the nighthawks go to but on occasion, she will work with her father in his tattoo shop learning more to be a tattoo artist.

Now you know the girls. They're all part of the second generation expendables. The Nighthawks. Just like how the expendables have their insignia of the raven sitting on the skull and the team name on a banner underneath, they have their own as well. Their symbol is a knife laying horizontally across a vertical rose with the word 'Nighthawks' written in cursive letters on the knife handle.

These girls do work with their fathers team at times but both are individual. They both get their assignments from everyone's favorite, .

Now you know each member. Hope you enjoy their story...


	3. Going To The Chapel Of Love

CARTER'S POV:

I walked into the house I now called home along with 6 other girls. Not just 6 random girls who were my room mates, they were on my mercenary team I started called, 'The Nighthawks'.

It was a small house for 7 adults to live in, but not too small where we all could fit and live together somehow. We didn't live far from our dads. My dad Barney lived with Maria's dad, Tool, and all the other girls dads didn't live too far from each other. Yet I'm pretty sure Kai's dad, Yang, and Krista's dad, Gunner, tried to live as far from each other as possible.

When I got home the first thing I saw was my best friend Lauren Christmas on the couch reading a piece of paper. The sound of the door closing made her look up from the paper and up at me. She smiled,"Hey Carter!" she said.

"Hey Lauren!" I motioned to the paper she was reading with my hand,"What's that?" She got up and walked toward me and she looked like she was oozing happiness. She handed me the letter, "Read it."

I gave her a sneaky look as I took the paper and it read,"Hey Lauren, I'm so excited! Guess what... I'm coming down to Louisiana next month! I was talking to some of my buddies at the university and since they're all meeting up with their girlfriends over summer break, I figured I would too! I've missed you too much and it'll be great to finally be with you again soon. I'll call you soon. Love you Lauren! 3 -Love, John Latura"

I nudged her arm and smirked making her face turn red as a maraschino cherry. "Ooh, John's coming to visit you from Virginia," I smiled All she could do was smile and nod. "Wait, so how long have you two been dating?" I asked.

"For about 7 years now cause we met in high school when I came to America," she answered.

"When's he gonna pop the question in you?" She shrugged and sat back down on the couch. "Where's everyone else?" "They went into town about 20 minutes ago and said they'd be back in an hour."

I nodded as my phone started to ring in my pocket. I answered it without looking at the called id. "Hello?" I said. "Carter," I heard my dad's deep, raspy voice say. "Oh hey Dad. Whatcha need?" "Would you mind stopping by my place? I gotta go see Church and he told me to bring you." "Sure. So I'll stop by you then we'll head over?" I asked. "That's the plan," he answered. "Ok, see you soon." And with that I hung up.

KAI'S POV:

I walked down the street along with Maria, Julia, Krista and Raina. The 5 of us had gone into town in New Orleans for about an hour then were gonna head home. Lauren had stayed behind and Carter wasn't home. While we walked I got a call from Carter. "Kai? It's Carter," she said. "Hey Carter," I said, "What's up?"

"I'm gonna be out for a while and probably won't be back till late tonight. If anything happens you're in charge." "Calm down, we'll be fine." "You know I worry," she said. I laughed a little,"I know. we'll see you later." And I hung up. 

CARTER'S POV:

I got to my dads place about 10 minutes later. As soon as I got there, the two of us left to go meet up with Church. When we got there, two people were there waiting for us. "Barney Ross... always so good to see you," I heard my dads worst enemy, Trench Mauser, say in a sarcastic voice.

"I wish I could say the same to you, Trench," Dad replied.

"Well look who it is... Miss Carter Ross," I heard in a voice I could never forget.

"Rebekah Sanchez... I haven't seen you since that fight we had senior year in high school. I heard you got a boyfriend," I said walking toward her.

She nodded and linked arms with Trench, "Yupp. Its Trench here." They both smiled.

"So... he's the guy who got you screwed over... that explains a lot," I smirked.

"Whatever," she scoffed, "I joined his mercenary team when we started dating."

Church interrupted, "Enough small talk. I've got an offer for either of you. Ever hear of Cancún?"

"Yeah," Rebekah said, "I went there for vacation with my parents once. It's on the Northeast coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico."

"She's right. Beautiful place. It's a shame what's happening there in secret."

"What's going on?" my dad asked.

"Human trafficking in an underground system and abandoned areas. There's a lot of trees in that part so everything these people do is very well hidden. The government has no idea."

"How dangerous is it there?" Rebekah asked.

"As far as I know, not much. But over time, it'll get downright deadly."

"Seems like a waste of energy in that case. You'd have to be a complete dumbass to take this job," Trench mocked.

"What's the pay?" I asked.

"Like I said," he said.

My dad turned to face Trench and had a murdurous look on his face. "You better watch what you say about my daughter you son of a bitch," Dad snapped.

"Enough!" Church yelled. "It pays 10 mil'."

"Not worth it," Trench said,"Give it to Ross and his daughter, here." Him and Rebekah started to walk out. Rebekah stopped in her tracks, turned around and came by me. She handed me a folded piece of paper then said,"Call me sometime. We should hang out." "When?" I asked. "How's in a million years?" "Way too soon," I answered. She smirked and walked out with Trench.

"So," Church started,"You two want the job or what?" "Yes," me and Dad said at the same time. "Great. I'll call either of your teams during the week with more information about it." We both nodded and walked out. I opened the paper that Rebekah gave me that read,"Bye you slutty bitch." I ripped up the paper then threw out the pieces in a nearby trash can.

She turned into such an asshole since she hooked up with Trench... 

**HEY GUYS! I just wanted to say that each chapter will mostly be one characters POV (point of view) like how this was basically just Carter, one will be just Lauren, or another just Raina, etc. Also, all the cuss words in this book or 'The Teenage Mercenary' is only there to co insight with the movies, I don't really talk like that. Also, I will bring characters from my series into the book at some points like how John Latura (the teenage mercenary: Lauren Christmas) will be showing up soon or how Rebekah Sanchez (the teenage mercenary: Carter Ross) showed up so yeah. also, this book won't be updated as much as 'The Teenage mercenary: Krista Jensen' cause that's more of a priority than this so yeah. ok! that's it! bye guys! Peace from all the hippies of the world! -RambosDaughter, AKA: **


	4. Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go

LAUREN'S POV:

I sat on the couch reading the letter from Latura over and over again while I waited for everyone to come home. Carter had went with her dad to talk to Church about something. Kai, Krista, Raina, Maria and Julia were still in town doing whatever they were doing, so I just sat there alone.

While I sat there, my phone started to ring. I looked at the caller id... Latura... I smiled as I answered the call. "Well you weren't lying when you said you would call soon," I joked.

He laughed, "That answers my question if you got the letter or not. So how are you, my lovely?"

"I'm ok. I miss you though. Last time I saw you, I was still 22 and I'm 23 right now."

"I know, but I've had so much work for school that I can't fly down to New Orleans like I want to."

"Well how long is your summer holiday?"

"Lauren, in America it's called break," he teased.

"Let me talk my British slang if I want to and answer the damn question."

He laughed, "Three months." "Ok, I gotta go, I'll talk to you soon ok?" "Yeah, I love you." I smiled though he couldn't see it when he said that. "I love you too," I said then hung up.

A few minutes later, everybody came home except for Carter who was still with her dad. "Hey you guys," I greeted as they walked in. "Hey Lauren," Raina said, "Why are you so smiley?"

Was I smiling?

"No reason," I lied trying to hide my smile.

Maria scoffed teasingly, "You're such a liar."

"What?" I asked.

"Last time you were that smiley, John was in town." They all smirked at me.

"Ooh, Lauren... when's he coming?" Kai asked sitting next to me on the couch.

"Next month and he's staying for three months for his summer holiday." She haves a confused look. "Holiday?" I sighed in annoyance, "His break." She nodded her head in understanding, "Ok, I know you have British slang, but please try to use American slang whenever possible."

...6 hours later...

The six of us started to watch a movie while Carter was out. I knew we should've waited for her but the others wanted to watch it really bad. Every time we all watched a movie- we would play rock, paper, scissor basically and whoever wins chooses the movie that night. Lucky for me, I won, so I got to choose the movie.

Thankfully, all of us liked the same types of movies and we liked the same actors... 80s action stars, action films, comedies, and action/comedy films.

The movie I chose was RED 2 starring: Bruce Willis, Mary-Louise Parker, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Anthony Hopkins. Everyone liked the movie so it would work out.

As soon as we were about to hit play, Carter walked into the house. "So you guys were gonna start without me? Ok, I see how it is," she laughed. "Hey, how'd it go with Church?" Raina asked. "Trench was there, and so was Rebekah Sanchez," she answered. Julia gave a confused look,"Who the hell is Rebekah Sanchez?" "A girl I was friends with in high school. After we graduated I tried to keep contact with her but she got rude." "Well, other than that, what happened?" I asked. Carter smiles victoriously, "Girls, we're going to Cancún."

...A few days later...

I got up and went downstairs to the kitchen and found Carter, her dad Barney, and my dad all in the kitchen sitting at the table. "What's going on?" I asked getting their attention.

"We got the information about Cancún... human trafficking in underground tunnels and in deserted areas," Barney answered.

"When do we go?" I asked taking the seat next to my dad.

"Two weeks," Carter answered me, not looking up from her paper.

My dad took the file that sat on the table, took out a piece of paper and handed it to me. "What's this?" I asked.

"Your strong point is finding your way around. That's a map of the tunnel system. You have to study it so you can help guide us around it," Barney answered before my dad could even answer.

"We're gonna go check out the area in a week... well, at least the surrounding area... then come back here, figure out the plan, then head back a week later with the teams," my dad explained.

"So just the four of us are going first?" Carter asked Barney.

He nodded, "You don't wanna draw attention do you?"

"Oh, and 2 Italians and 2 Brits' going to a deserted area won't draw attention to the authorities... we might as well have huge signs that have the word 'mercenaries on them," she scoffed. Her dad gave her a stern look then looked back to his paper.

...A few hours later...

Both my dad and Carter's dad left a few hours later at about 1:30 (13:30) in the afternoon. "They're all still asleep," I told Carter once the two of them left. She gave me an annoyed look,"Are you freaking kidding me?" I nodded. She stood there for a second then smirked. "Come with me," she said. I followed her to the kitchen. "Get out 5 glasses," she told me as she turned on the cold water in the sink.

"What's your plan?" I asked handing her the glasses. She started to fill them with ice cold water. "We're gonna dump ice cold glasses of water on their heads to wake them all up," she answered, "It's damn 1:35 in the freaking afternoon and they're asleep. What is this? Summer break in high school. No. It's life." She grabbed 3 glasses of the water and I grabbed the other 2.

Carter would pour her 3 glasses on Raina, Maria and Julia while I would dump mine on Kai and Krista. Carter smiled at me, "You ready?" I nodded and smiled back. "Go!" she said as she ran into Maria's took and I ran into Kai's. I dumped the water on her head then ran to Krista's room as Kai shot up, fully awake. "What the hell?!" she yelled. I then dumped the other glass on Krista's head then ran out as she screamed and jumped up.

I ran to the kitchen and so did Carter. We dries the glasses and put them away as fast as we could before the others came down to kill us. We sat down at the table and looked over the papers about Cancún and waited for our roommates who would be mad and soaking wet. Carter and I tried to hold in our laughter while we waited for the used-to-be-sleepyheads to storm into the kitchen.

Ha... they were all wet... and I said storm... word puns...

That was such a corny word pun I made up.


	5. Karma Chameleon

KRISTA'S POV:

I stormed out of my room and into the hallway. "What the hell?!" I heard Kai yell. A few minutes later, all of us were in the hallway except for Carter and Lauren... of course it would be those two... "Where's Carter and Lauren?" Maria said as she walked into the hallway. "They're not in their rooms," Raina said checking both of their rooms. "Downstairs," Julia said.

The five of us ran downstairs and found Carter and Lauren at the kitchen table looking over some papers. "Why are you all wet?" Lauren asked.

"What the hell is your problem?!" Raina yelled.

Carter shrugged and looked at Lauren. "We have no problem," she said.

"Why did you two pour water on us?!" I yelled.

Carter stood up in frustration,"Cause it's 1:45 (13.45) in the afternoon and you lazy assholes were still asleep! You guys aren't in high school anymore and this isn't summer break for you! That good enough reason for you?!" she yelled.

Lauren got up and held Carter back a little. "All of you go dry up," Lauren finished for her best friend. The five of us all went to our rooms to dry up then headed back to the kitchen for breakfast... or, lunch actually.

"Now that's everyone's awake," Carter started tossing a large file on the table,"Let's get serious... human trafficking in Cancún, you all know where it is right?" We all nodded. "Good. We're working on this with our dads. Me, Lauren, my dad and Lee are going in a week to check out the area. In two weeks we're all going to finish the job, got it?"

"How much does it pay?" Kai asked.

"10 million... the expendables get 5 and we get 5 since we're all going. Everyone gets $714,285 each... Kai, don't even ask for more like you did last time. Everyone gets the same amount, everyone clear?"

Kai nodded.

"Am I going?" I asked.

"Unless you do something to hinder my decision, you are. That goes for everyone here," Carter answered.

The only reason I asked is cause I've done things to get me off sometimes. Nothing horribly bad. Except once I shot the contact cause I thought he was leading us in the wrong direction. That's the worst I've done so, yeah...

"Do we know who we gotta get rid of?" Raina asked.

"Church is either gonna tell me or my dad in a few days," Carter answered.

"Contact?" Julia asked.

Lauren picked up the file and looked through it. "Some chick named... Carmen Ambrosio. Height is 5'6", brown eyes and black wavy hair."

Carter laughed,"Wow. That's shorter than all of us... exception Kai."

We all busted out laughing while Kai, who was only 5'1", stood up annoyed. "Must you people always make fun of my height?! Is it such a necessity?!" she yelled.

"It's hard not to since you're so tiny compared to the rest of us," I said still laughing.

She sat back down frustrated while we all continued laughing.

As soon as we calmed down, Raina spoke up. "You coming with us or you staying here with your dad, Maria?"

Maria shrugged,"Ill tell you guys by the Wednesday before we would go."

"Why so late?" Julia asked.

"Cause at my dads shop, unless it's the expendables or you guys, people need to call 3 days ahead if they wanna come for a tattoo. So if someone wanted to get a tattoo that Saturday, they'd have to call that Wednesday."

I gave a confused look,"Why 3 days?"

"So I can make sure I have all the colors I need. And if I don't, the company I order from mails them to me and it takes either 2 or 3 days for them to arrive."

"Makes sense," Kai said.

"Alright, tell either me or Lauren by the Thursday morning before," Carter said and Maria nodded.

...A few hours later...

All the talk about tattoos made me wanna get another. I had a few already, not many like Carter, Raina or Maria. An expendables tattoos on my right upper arm, nighthawks on my upper left arm, a copy of my old bracelet with my name and my moms name on my right wrist, my dads name on my left wrist.

I saw Maria working on some sketches in the living room. I walked in and sat next to her on the couch. "Hey Maria," I greeted. She looked up from her sketches and smiled,"Hey Krista! What's up?" "I was wondering if you could do some of your ink magic on me?" She laughed, "Of course! What'd ya have in mind?" "Something visible and bright, but not completely in your face. Any suggestions?" I asked. She smiled and nodded, "I know just the thing."


	6. What's Going On

KAI'S POV:

I looked over the file that Carter has thrown onto the table when tell us about Cancún until Raina sat in the chair next to me. "Hey Kai, what's that?" she asked. "The file about Cancún," I answered. She nodded in understanding. She was about to say something when Lauren threw a piece of paper aggressively into the trash can. "What but you in the ass?" Raina asked her.

"Latura can't come as early as he said and thought for his summer holiday... excuse me, summer break," she said frustrated. Raina and I busted out laughing. "What the hell is so funny?!" Lauren yelled.

"You're mad so you throwing the letter forcefully?" Raina laughed.

I laughed with her,"Thats so unlike you. usually you would throw a knife at something," I teased as me and Raina continued laughing.

"Oh, so you want me to throw a knife at something? I'll throw a knife at something," Lauren mumbled. She grabbed two steak knives and them toward me and Raina and the landed on the wall and Lauren walked out of the kitchen. I looked at Raina,"And I thought Carter had anger issues... especially this morning when she was ready to kill Krista."

Raina nodded,"Speaking of Krista, where is she?"

I shrugged,"Call her and find out."

Raina grabbed her phone, dialed Krista's number and put the phone on speaker. After a few rings, Maria picked up? "Hello?" Maria said.

"Maria? is Krista there?" I asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"We were just wondering where she was," Raina said.

"We're both at my dads shop."

Raina and I exchanged confused looks,"Ok then... see you two later then, I guess." And then we hung up. "Ok, so we got Krista and Maria at the tattoo shop. Lauren who's ready to kill the next person she sees cause she's mad John isn't coming like he said he would. Carter who's probably still ready to kill Krista. And a missing Julia... wait, where the hell is Julia?" Raina said. "In town with her dad," I answered.

...That night...

I went downstairs at the sound of the back door opening and closing. We both had night vision googles on and hand guns. When we got to the bottom of the stairs, Carter flicked on lights and a girl screamed. "Krista?!" Carter and I yelled, confused by the situation. We both took off our goggles and put our guns on safety. "What are you doing so late?!" Carter yelled furiously.

"I was out with my dad," Krista answered plainly.

Carter opened her mouth to say something, closed her eyes and sighed. "Just get out of my sight before I take this gun off of safety."

Krista walked past us up the stairs. Carter went to the kitchen table and sat down, slamming her gun and goggles down. "What's your beef with Krista lately?" I asked Carter.

She sighed in frustration,"She's been acting weird lately, a bad weird. I'm afraid she may be doing drugs like Gunner or picked up a drinking habit like her uncle had."

"It's possible. Considering she lived with a drunk for two years and then a drug addict since then."

"I don't wanna think she picked up either habit but I've just noticed things that lead me to the question: has she become an alcoholic? Does she do drugs? Or both even?"

I shrugged,"Its late, don't stress about it right now."

She shook her head,"I haven't been able to her much sleep in the last month cause of the possibility of the shit Krista may be doing. You don't know what it's like Kai. The thought of having to get rid of someone on your team, due to the fact they may have drug use or drinking. Me and my dad both have to deal with this. But cause of Krista, I'm losing my patience and possibly even sanity."

I shook my head,"I guess I don't know." I went back upstairs to my room. I checked the clock as I got into bed... 4:27am... will I actually fall asleep? Doubt it.

...The next morning...

Shockingly I fell asleep at 4:45am. Today, everyone was up and eating breakfast by 8 o'clock.

Except Krista...

When I tried to wake her up, she said she had a headache and felt nauseous. Then I thought I heard her run to the bathroom.

I told Carter what she said since she was the only one who knew what happened the night before. Since Krista obviously wasn't getting up yet, Carter decided we all try to figure out what was with Krista. She told everyone what happened and her speculations.

"If she claimed she was with her dad all night, why don't you just ask him and find out if she's lying or not?" Julia asked.

"Good idea... You, Maria and Kai- you drop by Gunner's place and ask him about it. Lauren and Raina, you're here with me in case Krista gets up and does something to make me wanna kill her... and of course to look about Cancún."

We all nodded in understanding of what we were doing. Julia, Maria and I all went to the garage to our Harley's and drove over to Gunner's. When he wasn't there, we called him using Maria's phone. "Hello? Gunner?" Maria said into the phone.

"Maria, what's up?"he said.

"Where are you? Julia, Kai and me stopped by your place to talk to you but you're not here."

"We're all at your dads place. why you need to talk to me?"

"We'll tell you when we get to my dads shop," she said and hung up.


	7. Runaway

**you will probably realize that my writing skills have changed a bit since last time I updated this with a real chapter... I apologize, but it happened and my writing kinda changed over the months as I continued to write other things. I hope you like the new way better.**

**JULIA'S POV:**

The three of us drove to Tool's place and got there in about ten minutes. As usual, Lee and Toll were throwing knives at the board wtih the skull on it. The three of us walked in and my dad came and walked over to me. "Hey, you three. What's bring's you here?" Dad asked.

"Hey, Dad. We're actually here to talk to Gunner, is he here?" He walked away and a minute later, Gunner walked up to us. "I hear you three wanna talk to me about something?" he asked.

"Last night, Krista didn't get home till about 4:15 in the morning and she said she was with you. So first of all, was she really with you?" Kai asked.

He shrugged a bit, "She was with me till about midnight, but not till after four. A little after twelve last night, I headed home and she said that's where she was going. That's where she said she was going to, at least."

"Well, she didn't," Maria said, "And this morning, she was sick."

His eyes widened a bit. "Sick? How?"

"I heard her run to the bathroom a few times and she said she just didn't feel good at all. Know anything about it?"

He shook his head.

The three of us sighed and nodded. "Alright, thanks, Gunner. And we'll know you know how's she doing later on."

He nodded and the three of us walked out. We all decided to go back to the house. There was nothing else we could really do, he would've been the only one who knew anything about her weird behavior lately. I jus felt bad cause I knew this couldn't be easy on Carter, cause it was never easy on Barney when it came to dealing with Gunner before any of us came around... I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

"So did you three find out anything?" Carter asked hopefully when we got to the house.

I sat on the couch and shook my head, "Gunner knows nothing about it. He said she was with him last night, only till midnight though and she told him she was going home."

She leaned back on the kitchen counter and gave a loud sigh. "Shit..." she mumbled.

"Why is she lying to us?" Maria asked.

"Cause she's as thick-headed as her dad... she can't keep this up, cause secrets can get us all killed if this continues."

"We're mercenaries, we should be able to figure this out," Kai said.

"You know nothing is easy for a mercenary, Kai," Lauren said coming from the other room.

"One of us has to get her alone to talk about it with her, try to get it outta her," I suggested.

"That could work, but who's gonna do it?" Raina gave a look of confusion.

Carter looked at me and smirked a bit, "Why don't you, Julia? It was your idea."

"Why can't you?"

"She'd probably pull out a gun and kill her there on the spot," Lauren laughed.

That earned laughter from the rest of us. "You're exactly right, Lauren," Carter laughed, then looked back to me, "Anyway, Julia- you'll talk to her. It's settled."

_...the next day_...

I left my room and went downstairs to the kitchen and found everyone there- including Krista. My eyes widened for a second in shock, since she had been up so late for the past week and sick nearly every morning. I shook it off then continued to get coffee. "Morning lazy ass, nice bed head," Maria teased. Everyone laughed at that and I stuck my tongue out at her, "It's early, you really think I care about bed head?" Everyone went back to what they were doing aned I sat next to Krista at the table, "Wanna hang out today?" She smiled and nodded and she went upstairs, saying she had to get ready. Carter looked at me, "You know what to do," she whispered and I nodded.

We left the house around ten and just went around town. "So what do you wanna do?"  
I asked.

Krista shrugged, "Wanna get lunch?"

I nodded and we went to a nearby diner. "Um, Krista? Can I ask you something?" I asked when we chose somewhere to sit.

She nodded, "Go ahead."

"What's going on with you lately? I mean, you've been acting different, and not the good kind of different. Are you alright?"

"Well..." She let out a heavy sigh. "Julia, can I tell you something?"

"What's going on?"

She sighed again. "I'm quitting the team in at least a week or two."

My eyes widened. "What?! Why?!"

"I have to, it's a personal thing that I can't tell you, not yet at least."

"Are you sick or something?"

"No, it's... it's too hard to explain the situation."

"Can't you tell me, Krista? I swear I won't tell anyone."

She scoffed, "Please... you all must think I'm such a dumbass. I know Carter wanted you to do this. Look, I just can't tell you, not yet. So just drop it."

"But Krista-"

"Drop it!" she yelled, got up and stormed out the diner.

I ran to the door to try and catch up with her. By the time I reached the door and go outside, she was getting on her motorcycle and putting on her helmet. I ran back to pay for the drinks we had ordered then ran back out to my motorcycle to try and catch up with her, but by the time I had my helmet gone, she was buzzing down the streets of New Orleans around the corner and she disappeared.

She stopped at the house and threw her helmet on the ground next to her bike. "Krista!" I called as I followed her. She turned around and glared at me, walking backwards. "Leave me alone," she growled at me. She then turned back around and continued into the house and stormed to her room, closing the door and locking it shut so I couldn't get it.

I decided to give up and landed back down on the couch. From what I could tell, no one else was home exept for me and Krista; but I could be wrong, you never know. They could've been outside or in another room or whatever, I just thought it was better none of them were out here considering Krista's angry mood change.

A few minutes later, I was half asleep on the couch. My eyes shot open when I heard the sounds of someone's sneakers against the hard wooden floor. I sat up and saw Krista walking to the door with a large duffle bag. I stood up, "Krista, please wait!" She turned, pulled a handgum from her duffel and aimed it at me. I stood still, afraid she might actually decide to pull the trigger. "Krista, what're you doing?" I asked in a calm, quiet tone.

"Krista!" I heard someone yell in Carter's voice. I looked toward the hall and saw Carter, fire filled her eyes. "Put the gun down, Krista," Carter demanded. Krista was shaking, but she didn't put the gun down. Carter got out her own gun from the nearby cabinet and aimed it at Krista, "I said... Put. The gun. Down. Now."

Lauren and Maria came in from the backyard and their eyes widened as they came to a halt when they saw the sight in front of them. "Julia, over there," Carter commanded, noddig her head to where Maria and Lauren stood, but not taking her eyes off of Krista. I slowly did as she said and went to where the two stood, dumbfound at what they walked in on.

Krista threw down her gun on the floor. Carter put her gun on safety and took her aim off of Krista. She pointed to the couch, "Sit down." Krista did as she said. Carter rubbed her hands over her face, let out a loud sigh, and crossed her arms. Her gaze was at the ground. "I don't know what's been going on with lately, but it's gotta stop. If it doesn't, you're done. And that includes living in this house... now I'm gonna ask you this, one last time... what's been going on with you?" Her voice was low and venom filled every word to the tip.

Krista shook her head and looked down at the ground, "I can't tell you."

"We can't have secrets. If mercenaries have secrets, that can get us killed and you know it... now, I've been thinking of cutting you for a long time, but this? This was the last straw, Krista. I'm sorry, but leave this house. Right now. And I don't wanna see you step foot in this house until you're ready to say what's been going on with you."

Krista sent a look at Carter that, if looks could kill, Carter would be dead right then and there lying down on the floor. Krista got up off the couch, grabbed her duffel bag and left the house, slamming the door shut as she did.

**ok, so I was thinking of putting this on fanfiction. net (this story, I mean) cause I recently started talking to a girl there who commented on one of my works there (it's here too) and I mentioned that I was thinking of putting this story there, and even my little series "The Teenage Mercenary" of which this spinoff came from. so, yeah... by the way, updates will still be random with this one, I will try once a month cause I have two other fan fic's that I;m working on, plus I've been trying to start my own stories that I wanna write and possibly get published as a book that you can get at a book store XD ( I even emailed my favorite author about that and she gave me the BEST advice I've ever gotten for writing, never in a million years will an english teacher tell you all that, only other authors so there ya go)**

**anyway, don't forget random updates! thank you to those who have stayed with me while I've been writing this! **


	8. Relax Don't Do It

_**MARIA'S POV**_

Carter looked like she was about to explode. Lauren walked over to her best friend. "I can't believe that just happened," Julia said quietly. "You ok?" I asked her and she nodded.

Kai and Raina came through the front door with confused expressions on their faces. They looked at Carter then at me and Julia. The two of us just shook our heads, signaling that we would tell them a little later. The two nodded and walked over to us slowly. The four of us walked out of the room to the back patio. "What just happened here?" Raina asked as we sat down on the floor of the patio.

"Yeah, and why did we just see Krista driving off like a crazy person?" Kai asked.

Julia and I shared a look. She let out a heavy sigh, "Krista left…."

Kai gave an unsure look. "What do you mean she _left_?"

"Well… she was on her way out the house, she threatened Julia with a gun, her and Carter had a huge argument, and Carter threw her out," I sighed.

"Wait, so she's not coming back?" Raina's eyes widened.

I shook my head. "I don't think so."

Julia opened her mouth to say something but quickly shut it when Carter came outside to us, Lauren following behind her. Carter let out a heavy sigh, out her hands on her hips and looked out at the sky, "I need you three to go see if you can find Gunner, see if Krista contacted him yet. Lauren, Maria, you're with me since our three dad's will most likely be together. Everyone clear?"

We all nodded quickly, knowing not to argue with Carter when she was mad. I mean, other than me, Kai and Julia- we were a bunch of hotheads. Which, when you think about it, was both a good thing and a bad thing. A good thing, cause when we were on assignments, we wouldn't hesitate shooting who we were had to shoot to get the job done. A bad thing, cause we would get like that when we were mad too. Same things using knives, not just guns. We had trouble holding back or restraining ourselves. I'm shocked neither Krista or Carter shot their guns.

The four of us got up off the ground and went inside to the get the key's to our motorcycles. We all had those instead of cars, and for a few reasons. One: motorcycle's were faster. Two: they took up less space. Three: it was great to see guys reactions when we took off our helmets.

The six of us went our separate ways, three of us in one direction, three in the other direction.

Carter, Lauren and I all got to my dad's place. Just as we thought, Barney and Lee were there with him. I looked through the window and saw the three playing some card game and talking. I could faintly hear Lynyrd Skynyrd playing; the song was the song by them almost everyone in the whole world knows: Sweet Home Alabama.

"You got a key, right?" Lauren asked me. I nodded, dug around my jacket pocket, then opened the now unlocked door. I saw the three men turn their heads when we walked in. My dad smiled- along with the other two- he stood up, walked over to me, and kissed my forehead. I smiled a bit at his action and he smiled back at me. He went back to his seat, with the three of us following behind him and pulling up chairs between them at the table.

"What're you three doing here so early in the day?" Lee asked us, looking at us three individually.

Before any of us could answer, Carter turned to her dad. "Dad, can I talk to you about something privately?" she asked him. He nodded and looked at my dad, signaling to another room in the back that had a door. Dad nodded and the two were off to the extra room.

"She cut Krista," Lauren answered her dad's question when the two closed the door.

"Apple doesn't fall far from the tree," Lee sighed.

"What do you mean?"

Dad lit his pipe. "Mr. Ross over there has had to cut Gunner, and not just once. He's done it a few times… what'd Krista do to get her self cut?"

I sighed a bit. "Well, she's been acting weird lately, but today, she nearly shot Julia before. Carter cut her and kicked her out the house."

"Julia's fine," Lauren said to reassure the two, "But none of us could figure out what's been going on with Krista lately."

"We all think gunner is mentally insane, maybe Krista is too." Dad let out a slight chuckle.

I gave him an annoyed look. "Dad, this is serious! For all we know, Krista might be going crazy!"

"This life can get to you, so she might be," Lee sighed again, "I've seen it happen to a lot of good mercenaries."

The four of us talked for a long while after, trying to figure out what might be wrong with Krista. The whole time, Carter and Barney were still in the other room. Lauren stood up, "I'm gonna go check on them two. They've been in there for a long time now." The three of us nodded as she went to the back of the building.

I sat there with Lee and my dad and we resumed the card game from before. The two were talking but I wasn't really paying attention to a thing they said. More like I _couldn't_ pay attention. There was too much going on in my head cause of everything that had just happened that blocked my thoughts from taking in anything else going on around me. I wasn't even fully focused on the card game with the two.

I looked up when Lauren sat back down. "Carter alright?" I asked.

She let out a small sigh, "Uh yeah… she just had a lot of stress and had to get it out to someone who gets the exact same stress she has and someone who understands her the best."

I knew what she meant by that. Both Carter and Barney were, basically, the leader and head for the both of our teams. They both had the same kind of struggles going on in their lives. Like Lee said, this life can get to you, especially if you're in their shoes. Kai had told me a conversation she had with Carter a little while ago. She said Carter was stressing a lot over Krista, and things going on had been kee[ing her up at night.

Barney came back to the table, Carter following him out and seeing right next to him. Carter didn't look up and was playing with her hands in her lap. "You alright, Carter?" Dad asked her. She glanced up at him and nodded a little.

The three of us left a little while after, Carter still hadn't said much after we left and after she talked with her dad.

We didn't really find out much about anything with Krista like we hoped we would. Gunner hadn't called the six of us, and the other three hadn't contacted any of us either. So, we still had no idea whatsoever what was going on with Krista, or even Gunner if she had contacted him yet.

If there really was something wrong with Krista, I'm actually not too surprised. One reason: Gunner wasn't too right in the head and we all knew it. He knew it too just as well as we did and Krista did too. Stuff like that was usually in the genes. I mean, none of us knew Krista's mom, since she died nearly ten years before she came here, but she said her mother was fine.

The other reason I wouldn't be too shocked was cause of how she said her uncle was. She told us that when her mother died and she lived with him in California, she was suicidal to some extent. She said he abused her so much that she wanted to kill herself sometimes or that she just wanted to die. She said she would cut herself. She said that it didn't stop till she came to live with Gunner here in New Orleans.

We all knew she had anger issues, and even other kinds of issues… but we never thought that it'd come to this.

**Real quick, I'm not making fun of people who really are in those positions, it's just had I made Krista's previous life. Also, for fanfiction. net people reading this story, I'm sorry for all the old author's notes. I literally copied and pasted the previous chapters from wattpad when I originally posted them there. Ok! Bye! =^-^=**


	9. Jack Daniels If You Please

_**CARTER'S POV**_

We got back to the house at the same time as Kai, Raina, and Julia did. "Anything?" I asked.

They all shook their heads. "Gunner didn't know a thing," Raina sighed.

"Damn it," I mumbled as we all continued to the house.

Everyone went off to do whatever. I went to my room, grabbed the Cancun file, then went outside to the back porch to look over it. I looked to the contact page. _Carmen Ambrosio_. Long black hair, green eyes, about my height. From what I could imagine, she reminded me a little bit of Sandra from Vilena.

"What's that?" someone asked. I jumped and saw Lauren standing in the doorway. "Sorry," he chuckled and sat down next to me.

"It's cool," I waved off, "And this is the file 'bout Cancun. The four of us are supposed to leave in three days and we haven't looked over the file too much, and I need something to get my mind off what happened with Krista."

Lauren nodded. "Carter?"

"Yeah?"

"You alright?"

I scoffed. "Sure, why not? Everyone else is, why can't I be?" I let out a sigh. "Can I tell you something?"

She nodded. "Yeah, of course."

"I've been thinking… after the whole Cancun thing, I might stop this whole thing."

"You mean, you're' gonna quit the team?"

"Maybe… I'm not one hundred percent sure yet, but I'm thinking that I might. I just can't take the stress anymore. I mean, I'm only twenty-four and I have the stress of a middle-aged office worker. I feel like Jules from _St Elmo's Fire_, I'm just so tired and I never thought I'd be this tired at my age."

"But we can't do this without you," Lauren frowned.

I looked down. "You may have to." I sighed and got up, then went into the house.

I went to my room and grabbed my helmet, wallet, keys, phone and leather jacket then went back out to the garage. I slipped my jacket on me and put on my helmet as I started the engine on my Harley-Davidson, which was the same that I had in high school. I pulled out the garage, doing my best not to look at Lauren as she kept calling my name to ask where I was going. I wasn't mad at her, far from it. I just needed to get away for a little while and get some fresh air or something. I didn't actually know where I was going, but I figured if I took a bunch of turns, I'd end up somewhere.

And I was right, except I ended up at a bar. I didn't usually drink, but I was no stranger to alcohol. I would have a beer, maybe at most, once a week but that was it. I never drank till I was drunk or even close to wasted. I never understood the satisfaction people would get by getting drunk. I mean, you're falling all over the place, you get sick and then the next morning, you get a hangover. I got drunk once, it was ok while it lasted, but then later that night I got sick outta my mind and the next morning, I felt the worst I had ever felt cause of the hangover. Where's the satisfaction in that? I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I never got it.

I parked my bike outside, kicked down the kickstand to keep it steady, and hung my helmet over the left handle bar. I got some looks as I walked toward the door, and even more looks- along with some cat calls- from a bunch of guys as I walked in. I rolled my eyes and scoffed. I could feel people staring at me as I walked to the counter, but did my best to ignore every guy in the whole place who was mostly checking out my ass. I finally got to the counter and leaned my elbows on the counter and buried my head in hands, then let out a sigh.

"You alright?" someone asked, making me jump and my head snapped up to look at the person.

The guy was a bar tender with brown hair and blue eyes like Lauren. I looked back down and shrugged, "I don't know."

"You drunk?"

I shook my head. "No. I drink but I never got drink enough to get drunk."

He thought for a moment. "Well, can I get ya anything Miss…?"

"Ross. Uh… Carter Ross. Just call me Carter."

"Carter… can I get you something to drink?"

"Got Jack Daniels here?" He nodded, walked off then came back with the glass bottle. "Thanks…" I trailed off.

He chuckled. "Hazard… Rob Hazard."

"Thanks, Rob." I opened the bottle and took a small sip from it.

"Hey," he started, "If you don't mind me asking, what brought ya here?"

I gave a confused look. "What do you mean?"

"Not to give the wrong impression, but the majority of the people who come to _this_ bar are guys."

I sighed, "It's complicated."

He shrugged. "I got time."

I ended up telling Rob everything, leaving out everything about my actual line of work and Cancun. I never actually talked to a bar tender and I always thought that in movies and television when people would go on and on about their problems and get advice from bar tenders that it was all made up or something. I was proven wrong, but this was one of those really rare moments when I was ok with being proved wrong.

I also ended up not really drinking of the Jack Daniels, maybe about one-fourth of the bottle, but that was it. I just kept talking with Rob mostly that I guess I just forgot about it. At first it was kinda weird. I didn't really talk to guys who were around my age. I had my dad and the expendables, in that sense. Slowly but surely though, I eased into the conversation-without the help of any drink.

"You smoke, Carter?" Rob asked.

I shrugged a bit and nodded, "Tryin' to cut back a little, but yeah."

"Care to join me? I got a ten minute break."

"Sure, I don't got anywhere to be."

We went outside and both lit up. "How long have you had the habit?" he asked.

I shrugged again. "Probably about seven years, cause I was junior in high school."

His eyes widened for a second. "Wow, that's longer than me. How'd you even get them at that age?"

"My dad had no problem with it. He thought it was my choice considering my age, but he did have a limit. Lucky for him, I would only smoke once or twice a day, but lately I got to a whole pack a day soI'm slowly cutting down."

"What'd your mom think of it?"

"Oh, uh… she uh, she died when I was thirteen, and that's when I went to go live with my dad. They weren't married and lost contact when my mom was pregnant with me." I could hear that my voice got a little lower on its own.

He gave a sad look. "I'm sorry, I-I shouldn't have asked about-"

I waved it off. "It's cool, really."

His break was over and I decided to leave and go back home. "Maybe I'll see you again?" he asked.

I smirked a bit and slipped a small piece of paper with my cellphone number on it into his waist apron. "We'll see," I smirked and drove off.

I couldn't stop thinking about Rob and how easily I had talked with him. Like I said, I wasn't very comfortable talking to guys who were my age. I know, crazy thinking that the tough Carter Ross doesn't have the guts to talk to a guy… Lauren and Maria tried to teach me how a few times but it never worked. My life was too busy for a boyfriend anyway. My time was mostly took up by studying and going over assignments, and in between I would work with Maria and Tool at their tattoo shop or just study the history of countries and try to look up as many small countries that most people don't know about- I would even ask Church about certain countries and ask for research to do.

I got back to the house at about 7:30 that night. When I got there, I couldn't see anyone, but I could the other five talking and laughing somewhere in the house. I smiled a bit, knowing that even though Krista wasn't there anymore, I still had the other five there with me. I then froze in my tracks and felt my face change into a look of shock and confusion.

"_Since when do _I_ think so positively?"_ I thought.

Ok, I never thought _that _positively. I wasn't proud of that, but it's just how I was. Maybe cause of my mother with her depression when I was growing up, I kinda had a dark and depressing way of thinking? Or cause of the work I've done and the things I've seen all throughout my teenage years, I was demented and sick? I knew my interests were pretty weird and I guess demented when I compared them to others, but it's how I was. And that's what confused me.

What if talking with Rob was changing me?

What if I liked him and _that_ was changing how I felt about things? I've never dealt with this before!

_No._ Even if I did like Rob, I wouldn't let it change me. I wouldn't freak out or tell anyone, I mean, he's just a guy. It's not like he could affect my life that much. But hopefully, whatever happened, I wouldn't let it affect my work.

**Hi! Sorry update seems like it took a while!**

**Anyway, do you guys think that the whole love interest thing works out with Carter? I mean, I thought of it cause in my mind, I expect this character to be the least interested in guys. I mean Lauren has Latura (he's been mentioned), Krista might have someone *insert evil smile here, hinting that in the plot of this story*, and the rest are interested in guys, just are currently single. **

**Ok, whatever, thoughts on the love interest of Rob Hazard?**

**Oh, by the way- every chapter for this story has a title, from this point on, the title's will be some titles of songs that have something to do with the chapter.**

**Peace from all the hippies of the world! =^-^=**


	10. Band On the Run

_**LAUREN'S POV**_

"Ok, what's gotten into you?" I asked Carter with a chuckle.

She gave a confused look, "What're you talking about?"

"Oh come on!... ok, ok. You've been acting real different lately. Why is that?"

"Good different? Or bad different?"

"Good different."

She bit her lip then sat forward. "Ok, I'll tell you- but you have to swear not to tell anyone else," she said in a quiet voice.

I nodded, "I swear."

"Ok. I uh… I got a boyfriend." She bit back a smile.

My jaw dropped and I smiled. I grabbed her shoulders and shook her for a second. "Carter! This is so great! What's his name?"

"His name is Rob."

"Where'd ya meet him?"

"Remember that day I drove off?" I nodded. "Well I just kept driving and I got to this bar and I met him there."

"_We're about to land!"_ Barney called to us in the back before I got to ask her another question.

"We're talking about this later," I told Carter and pointed a finger at her while she rolled her eyes and let out a chuckle.

The two landed the plane about five minutes later. There was a beach there, so the landed toward the edge of the beach where there was a slightly wooded area. It wasn't huge, but big enough for us to hide the plane there. When they landed Carter and I changed to blend in more than we would wearing jeans and long sleeve shirts. We both changed in to two piece bathing suits- mine was blue with polka dots, Carter's was plain black. Then we put on shorts and tank tops and converse sneakers. We both decided to carry bags since we were gonna be at a hotel so inside of them was: two pairs of clothes, handguns and extra ammo, and night vision goggles in case we got to the tunnel.

After we changed, we left the plane and met Dad and Barney on the beach. They both gave us questioning looks to us. "Problem?" Carter asked.

"You bet there's a problem," Barney said sternly.

"Which is?"

Dad pointed to us individually back and forth, "You two don't plan on walking out onto the beach like that, right?"

I nodded, "Yeah, we are."

"No, you're not." Dad shook his head.

"You wanted us to blend in… this is how two girls our age would be dressed." Carter shrugged.

Barney and Dad both shared looks of defeat before turning back to us. "Fine," the two said at the same time. Dad spoke up, "But if we see any creeps gawking at the two of you we're gonna kill 'em."

I shrugged and looked at Carter, who nodded. "Deal," we said at the same time.

The four of us continued to walk down the beach in hopes of finding Carmen Ambrosio. The whole time, Carter and me saw Barney and my dad looking annoyed and alert for any guys staring at us. The two of us were having a great time about it, teasing them about the whole situation. "They really need to realize we're not teenagers anymore," Carter whispered with a chuckle. I chuckled and nodded.

After about ten minutes we found Carmen. "You sure that's her?" I asked. Carter nodded and quickly showed me the picture on her phone of Carmen. "We'll be back," Carmen said, taking my arm and pulling me toward the woman who we knew was our contact. When we got to the woman she tapped her on the shoulder. "Are you Carmen Ambrosio?" she asked quietly.

The woman took off her sunglasses and gave a slightly confused look, "Sí… qué está pasando?" _**(Yes… what's going on?)**_

"First, do you speak English well?" She nodded. "Ok, then please speak English? We don't speak Spanish."

Carmen looked annoyed by now. "What's this all about?" She had a Spanish accent.

"Calm down," I said, "We're here to help you. We're the ones sent by Church, does that ring a bell?"

Her eyes widened for a second and she nodded. "I'm sorry, I didn't know you two were-"

"Four," Carter interrupted and motioned to the two a little space away.

"Church told me about something called a nighthawk? If I understood him correctly, but I was not sure what he meant." She gave a confused look.

"Come back with us to our hotel and we'll explain whatever we can." My voice was more of a hushed tone. She gave an unsure look. "Trust us."

She hesitantly nodded and followed us back to our hotel. As we walked through town, Carter and me both put on t-shirts we brought- which made our dads happy. As soon as we got the hotel, the two of us changed into jeans and regular shirts and boots-which made our dads even happier. We left the rest of our belongings in our small bags since there wasn't too much to carry anyway. We then explained the situation to Carmen. "My best friend is the guy's girlfriend… I do not know his name though, but I know he is an American," Carmen said.

"What's your friend's name?" Barney asked her.

"Rosalinda Santiago, but people mostly call her Rosie."

"Is she in the country right now?" I asked her.

Carmen shrugged. "As far as I know. She hasn't told me otherwise."

"Have you ever met the guy?" Carter asked and sat down at the table.

Carmen shook her head. "Never."

"Can we know where you live or where you're staying? Just in case we need to contact you at all."

Carmen nodded and wrote down her phone number and address to where she lived. She left a little while after that, saying that if we needed her for anything, not to hesitate to ask. She also gave us the phone number and address that she had for Rosie, just in case we were able to contact her about her boyfriend. Carmen said she was willing to help us contact Rosie in any way, shape or form- but we asked her not to tell anyone she was helping us, which she quickly agreed.

The four of us all left to go check out the area where we were told everything was taking place. Carter and I took our bags with us, considering our guns were in our bags. Same thing with Dad and Barney. They had small duffel-bag type bags with them that had everything they took with them, along with their guns.

We got to the deserted area, which apparently wasn't far from where the plane was, and walked there as quietly as possible. I slipped on a hand guard so if I had to use my gun, it wouldn't slip out my hand at all. I saw and Carter, Dad and Barney all do the same. We got closer and I could hear a few voices. One of the voices sounded very familiar, but I couldn't remember where I had heard it before. _"Maybe it's just one of those voices,"_ I thought and continued on.

I was brought outta my thoughts when Carter nudged my arm and pointed to a cave with a sign on it with Spanish writing on it. "Can you read Spanish?" she asked.

I shook my head, "Only if it were Latin."

She gave a confused look. "_Latin?"_

"My mom made me took Latin while I was still England with her."

"Latin's a dead language."

"No shit, Sherlock."

She glared at me for a second then walked up to the sign. "All I can make out is _do not enter_, but I can't tell what's after that."

"Even more reason we should go in there."

"It's locked."

"Cover your ears," Dad said. We did as he said as he shot the lock with his gun and it blew into small pieces of metal on the ground. "Would you look at that? It's open."

We all walked in quietly, all of us taking out our guns and taking them off of safety. It was kinda dark so we put on our night vision goggles so we'd be able to see. Despite how hot it was outside, it was pretty chilly inside the cave. You could hear footsteps echo in there, so we tried to be as quiet as we actually could, considering we were all wearing working boots.

"_Quien va alla?"_ (_**who goes there?)**_a voice called out from around the corner to the next turn.

"No hablamos mucho Español. Hable usted Inglés?" (_**we don't speak much Spanish, do you speak English?)**_ I called out to the voice and Carter sent me a confused look for a second.

"_Who are you?"_ the same voice called out.

"Tourists exploring around," Barney called.

"_Turn back."_

"We were told this-"

"_I said turn back!"_

Before any of us could say anything else, more soldiers were coming into the tunnel and bullets had started to fly. "Let's go!" Barney yelled. The four of us turned and made our way to the end and out the tunnel, turning around occasionally for a second or two to shoot at the people and soldiers who were shooting at us.

All of us somehow managed to escape with a cut or scratch. Once we were out of the forest we went back to the hotel to get ready to go back to New Orleans. "I thought you didn't speak Spanish?" Carter asked while the plane took off.

"I don't," I answered with a shrug, "But Latura does."

"And?"

"He taught me that if anyone ever asks me something in Spanish how to say: _I don't speak much Spanish. Do you speak English?"_

"And that's what you said?"

I nodded. "Except I changed _I _to _we_." Carter gave another confused look. "I know my Spanish pronouns."

She chuckled, "So much for Latin."

**I finally updated! Sorry I haven't in a while! I just finished reading my book Love and War and now I'm reading Heaven and Hell (the last of the North and South trilogy XC ) and watched the first episode of the second show last night with my mom, plus I was sick yesterday, and I have to catch up a lot on school work and still haven't updated my other stories, plus Memorial Day was this week so yeah…**

**Happy Memorial Day!**

**By the way, I'm not trying to make fun of Latin with this part, but my dad once said, "No one speaks Latin anymore, that's a dead language." So I decided to use it.**

**That's all folks! (hopefully you know where I got that from) peace from all the hippies of the world! -^-^=**


	11. Papa Don't Preach

While the two team leaders and their seconds in command made flew off the coast, the rest still heard nothing about Krista… unless you were Gunnar Jensen.

Krista went to her father about a week or around that after she ran off/got kicked out of the house. She was fine when she first got to the small house she'd lived in as a teenager with her father, but when Gunnar brought his daughter inside and they sat down: she broke down into a fit of sobs on his shoulder. She didn't like crying, no less sobbing, but she'd be lying if she didn't expect something like that in her condition.

"I wish I could take back everything I did that day," Krista cried into her father's shoulder.

Gunnar kept his arm around his only daughter and kissed her forehead. "I know Krista… have you tried talking to Carter yet?"

Krista scoffed a little. "I bet she's ready to kill me by now. Besides, she's with Lauren, Barney and Lee in Cancun."

"Well Lee called Caesar about an hour ago. The four of them are on their way back."

Krista looked at her father curiously. "Really?"

Gunnar nodded. "They met the contact already and they're comin' back to figure out what they're gonna do to get rid of the guy. But you sure as hell ain't goin' with us, even if you do settle things with Carter and the rest."

"I know, I know." _Jonathan would kill me anyway_, she thought. "I don't think I'd physically be able to run like I would have to anyway."

Krista left the house a little while after that. She left her motorcycle where her and her fiancé- Jonathan Williams- rented an apartment. They'd been going out ever since high school, got engaged three months earlier to their current state, and moved in together the day she was kicked out of the house.

Krista really did love him. When she had first ran away from where her uncle lived in Los Angeles, she never thought she'd be able to love again. When she found her father, she regained the ability to love a person. While she had been here or even when her mother was still alive, she had boyfriends, but she never felt anything even close to what she had ever felt for Jonathan. Gunnar liked him too, which was a good thing. Jonathan had even went to Gunnar in person before proposing to Krista- which impressed Gunnar even more.

And to think that back in high school she kneed him in his little Jonathan's for simply hitting on her.

Krista walked back to their apartment alone. A small smirk formed on her face as a light drizzle had started and she pulled the hood of her hoodie over her head. Walking home alone made her think of the line in the song by Billy Joel- _You May Be Right_\- "_I walked to Bedford Stuy alone."_ Out of all the songs by the Piano Man, that had to be her number one favorite song. The fact that she knew how to drive a motorcycle and the slight drizzle made her think of the next line, "_Even rode my motorcycle in the rain."_\- which she had done many times before.

She got to her apartment, slightly damp from the rain, and hung her leather jacket on the small coat rack that was screwed into the wall. "Jonathan? You here?" she called through the small apartment. The size and arrangement of the apartment was practically the same exact way that Adrian Monk, played by Tony Shalhoub, had his apartment in the series _"Monk"._ Therefore, the apartment was just right for two people and could even fit three or four in total.

"That you, Krista?" her fiancé called from the other room in response. Krista tracked his voice to the kitchen. "I guess it was you," he said with a chuckle when she came into sight leaning against the doorway of the kitchen.

She smiled and started to walk toward where he was standing. "What're you doing?"

A laptop sat in front of the young couple. Pictures of buildings lined the screen. "Trying to find a new place to live for when we get married at the end of the year."

"But this apartment is just fine… even for more than just the two of us."

-/-/-

While the blonde and her fiancé continued with their conversation about possible living arrangements, the remaining four Nighthawks did as Carter had instructed them to do before she got back from Cancun with Lauren- look around the house to find something that might tell them what was going on with Krista.

Maria and Julia would search through the closets and bathrooms and through the cabinets in the kitchen. So far, the demolitions expert and the tattoo artist of the team had found nothing. They had nearly taken the kitchen apart looking through the cabinets- which they cleaned up right after. They had gone through five out of ten closets through the house, currently looking through closets numbers six and seven. By now, the two were losing hope on finding even one thing that could help them figure out what was wrong with their friend and teammate.

Kai and Raina were searching through the rooms where they all slept. With certain modifications to the house and the rooms, the seven made it so that each girl had her own bedroom. There were four bathrooms in the house, three were shared between the seven while the third was used mostly when they had guests over and hardly used otherwise.

Just like Maria and Julia, Kai and Rain had practically given up all hope that they would find anything to help them out in finding Krista and helping her through whatever was going on in her life. So far in her room, they had only found leftover articles of clothing. Kai gave the drawers a questioning look, _I wonder why she hasn't come back through the window or something to get the rest_. She stopped rummaging through the drawer when she found a small, white, cardboard box that had been ripped open. "Oh my gosh," Kai muttered and started the box that she now held in her hand.

Raina turned to Kai, who still had the box in her hand. "You found somethin'?" Raina asked and walked to where Kai was standing.

Kai still stared at the box and said nothing.

Raina gave a questioning look and looked over her friend's shoulder- which wasn't hard due to their height differences- and read the small print on the box in Kai's hands. "Oh my gosh," Raina mumbled, previously like her friend had a minute before.

"Maria? Julia?" Kai leaned out into the hallway. "Check the garbage bin in the spare bathroom."

The other two girls nodded and did as the shortest of them all had asked. Kai and Raina ran to meet them there, and weren't shocked when they saw the facial expressions of the other two girls.

"Someone call Carter."

-/-/-

"She's not picking up," Julia sighed and looked at the screen of her phone, "I've called her five times now and she still hasn't picked up."

Raina set her phone down on the table and rubbed her forehead with her left hand. "Lauren either."

Kai and Maria walked into the kitchen and sat down at the table with the two other mercenaries. "We tried Barney and Lee… no answer from either of them," Kai sighed.

"There's something really wrong. They were leaving Cancun, why aren't-" Maria started but got cut off by the doorbell. She got up from her seat at the table and went to the door. When she opened it, her father- Tool- stood there leaning against the doorpost, his pipe hanging from the edge of his mouth. Tool took the pipe from his mouth and greeted his daughter by kissing her forehead. The brunette with green eyes that belonged to her mother invited her father inside, thinking maybe he knew about the location of the two Ross members and the two Christmas members.

"I wish I could tell you girls, really I do… but I don't know anything about where they are. All I know is that they were supposed to be back by now," Tool said and took his pipe from his mouth, "I'm sorry girls."

-/-/-

_Carter… Carter… c'mon Carter, wake up…_

Carter Ross didn't know who was talking to her or where she was either. All she knew was that it hurt to move, mostly her head. The rest of her body was more sore than in pain. She placed both her hands against her forehead and let out a groan. She let her eyes adjust and saw her father in front of her. He had a dried red blotch on the edge of his hairline that leaked down to his chin and tiny bit of his neck. "Carter, you alright? You've been out for a few hours," he said to her quietly.

She sat up against the wall and let out another groan. "I guess so… where… where are we?" She knew her voice would sound weak, but she never expected it to sound as weak as it did. Barney would be lying if he didn't secretly agree with her.

"Cancun," Lee answered from a few feet away.

"They shot down the plane and we landed in the water. The soldiers from the tunnel- which is where we are now- got us and brought us here."

"Where's Lauren?"

"She managed to swim away. I told her to keep going and get back to New Orleans as best as she could," Lee said, standing up from his current spot and sitting down with Barney and Carter. His face showed slight relief, probably since Lauren wasn't in their position.

Carter tried to sit up, but failed due to the soreness that seemed to go throughout her entire body cause by heaven knows what form the events told to her. Barney took off his jean jacket that the soldiers shockingly didn't take away from him and folded in on the floor, then pushed Carter back a little bit. "You took a hard fall," he said quietly, "Rest a little while." She nodded and did as he said and slowly laid down, her head placed on the jean jacket. She fell asleep in a minute. Barney placed his hand against her forehead and let out a sigh. He couldn't help but frown at the figure of his sleeping daughter out of worry.

-/-/-

Krista sat down at the small dining room table and let out a sigh as she looked at the screen of her cellphone. It displayed _19 missed calls_ cross the screen; all calls from Julia, Raina, Kai and Maria. Judging by the calls, she judged that her father hadn't told them about getting in contact with her like she guessed he might. _I'll go see them in a day or two,_ Krista thought and set her phone down.

**I experimented with third person! I honestly think it's easier for this story cause I was able to write it way quicker than any chapter and didn't have to set it aside cause I ran out of ideas so I'm just gonna do that for the rest of the story. Updates may be either quicker or the same, the school year is almost over and with my school program- I'm behind in geometry and history, so let's see what happens.**

**Anyway, hope you liked the chapter- peace from all the hippies of the world! =^-^=**


	12. Learn to Fly

"Good thing you got better in time to go," Maria said to Lauren as they took off.

Lauren chuckled, "Yeah, and good thing you know how to co-pilot."

Maria chuckled again. "I bet it feels pretty weird being the one in charge of everything, huh?"

Lauren nodded and her smiled faded a bit. "Yeah, kinda."

Maria noticed the change in her friends facial expression and decided to drop the conversation. She tried to think of something to talk about that was possibly going on in either of their lives. Nothing was going on in her own life and, to be honest, Lauren's wasn't so hot right now- her father was being held hostage with her best friend and her father, she had to swim back to the United States after the plane got shot down so that meant she had to hide from Coast Guard, and her boyfriend couldn't come to New Orleans like planned cause of some school thing.

"Hear anything from John lately?" Maria asked cautiously.

Lauren continued to look straight ahead as she answered, "The son of a bitch is lying to me."

"What're you talking about?"

Lauren turned on the auto pilot and turned to her friend. "He said that he was still at college for some assignment, but when I called there, they said he didn't sign up for any summer classes and that none of his other classes had him doing anything this summer… he lied to me."

Maria felt bad for asking. When she saw her British friend look back straight ahead and turn off the auto pilot as aggressively as she did, she felt even worse. When she saw Lauren wipe her cheeks and right under her eyes, she felt like someone had put a knife through her chest right then and there into her heart. "It's the altitude," Lauren lied with a shaky voice when she noticed her friend watching her.

-/-/-

"We studied a map of the place but in case we get confused of where to go, Lauren studied the map too and knows the tunnel," Raina explained to her father and the four members of the expendables on the plane, or at least the three of them that were listening.

The last member- Gunnar Jensen- was on the phone with his daughter. "Make sure you're not alone, am I clear?"

"_Dad, I'm not a teenager anymore. I'm an adult,"_ Krista chuckled.

"Krista…"

She chuckled again. _"I was joking, Dad. Calm down."_

"Ha-ha… Krista, please just humor me and do as I say and just stay with someone while I'm gone? Even if it's with someone from where you work if Jonathan's not around."

"_I will, don't worry. Bye Dad."_

"Bye Krista," he said with a slight sigh and hung up.

-/-/-

Krista locked her phone and slipped it back into her left jean pocket. She continued then over to the shelf with the medium sized box of novels.

Krista had gotten a job at the local library near her old high school. It actually paid pretty well, considering she worked as the librarian for the children's and teenage books section. She could probably recite _The Cat in the Hat_, certain parts of _The Outsiders_, _Green Eggs and Ham_, _The Hunger Games_ and countless other books from memory from doing her job- but to be honest, she didn't mind and it was really the only job she could get.

She'd be lying if she said she didn't like working with the kids. Sure, there were some kids- mostly preteens and teenagers- that would be pretty loud and obnoxious in the library and wouldn't listen to her unless she threatened them when they told her to be quiet, but otherwise she was happy with the job and liked the kids. There were regulars, there were those who came when they had some project or report, they were those who came for a quiet homework spot, and there were those then who would just use the computers.

Even though she liked the librarian job, it felt kind of weird. She had been a mercenary since she was fifteen years old, sixteen at least, and it's basically the only thing she knew how to do. Sure, she had been thinking of quitting the nighthawks due to her situation, but had considered going back up once everything was back to normal… but that was before her teammates thought she would actually shoot one of them.

"Krista?" a quiet voice said behind her, making her jump a bit and taking her from her thoughts. "Sorry," the voice chuckled nervously.

Krsita turned and let out a relieved sigh and smiled a bit at her co-worker Ellie. "it's alright… just try _not_ to do that anymore," she chuckled, "What's up?"

Ellie smiled and nodded. "Yeah, sorry about that. I forgot… I was just gonna ask if you were alright cause you've kinda just been leaning down on the floor for five minutes staring into space so I just wanted to make sure you're alright."

Krista stood up. "Oh, yeah… sorry, I was just thinking about some stuff."

"Oh alright… also, maybe you wanted to go to lunch with me and Hannah? We all get our break now and there's a real good diner a few blocks away."

"Sure," Krista smiled.

-/-/-

_I really hope they get this guy soon_, Carter thought, _I don't know how much longer I can take this._

Carter leaned her head on her father's lap. She was a mess due to everything that had happened, but compared to her father's current state, she was a bowl of chocolate covered strawberries from Edible Arrangements. She knew he was worried, and probably even slightly annoyed that he had let this all happen, but she chose not to mention it and hopefully, he couldn't tell that she noticed him.

"Do you think they all left New Orleans yet?" Lee asked his friend.

Carter felt her father shrug. "Who knows? Hopefully they did so we can get the hell outta here," Barney said and let out a sigh.

"Lauren is probably the one in charge," Carter said in a tone quieter than intended.

Lee shrugged. "They could be on their way now."

"Who knows?" Barney shrugged.

Carter sighed a bit and shut her eyes. _Don't these two think positively,_ Carter thought.

-/-/-

Julia sat quietly on the plane while the other two members of the nighthawks talked with the other four members of the expendables on the plane. She didn't know how long they'd been on the plane or how much longer they would be on the plane, but she decided both were too long- she hated flying.

It was a known fact that she had mild claustrophobia and mild acrophobia- fear of being unable to escape and anxiety of being at a large height, in her case. Supposedly, she had inherited it from her mother, but she never believed it. Her mother went on planes all the time and Julia could when she was little, besides, it had started when she was around thirteen years old. She knew the cause. Around then, she had heard so many stories of past planes that crashed, people that had snuck bombs onto planes and a few other stories that eventually got her pretty freaked out. _Those stories_ are what caused her fears. Did she feel more comfortable on the plane used for missions? Yeah, cause she knew that there was no one else who could sneak a bomb on the plane that wanted to kill them. But this time she was even more nervous due to the fact that Barney's plane had been shot down as him, Lee, Carter and Lauren had tried to leave the country.

"You seem even quieter than usual," Kai said to her, "You alright?"

Julia looked at her then glanced down. "Uh, yeah," she answered quietly.

"Alright… I was just wondering cause you're even more quiet than you usually are when you're on a place."

Julia let out a sigh. "I'm just worried cause when they all tried to leave the plane got shot down and they were taken hostage."

"Don't worry, we're gonna be fine. Nothing's gonna happen. And even if something did happen we'd all know what to do."

Julia gave a weak smile, which Kai returned then turned back to the others as Julia continued to let her nerves get the best of her.

**Just so you know, nothing bad is going to happen to them on the plane- I'm not that cruel of a writer.**

**Omg did you see this chapter's title "Learn to Fly"? thank you Foo Fighters for being so amazerful and having awesome song titles. It's actually really hard choosing song titles for these chapters titles. Like if the song title make me think of what happened in the chapter, the actual song doesn't have to be about like what happened in the chapter, just the title. It's kinda weird but I like it with the whole song title thing. In the back of my notebook for this story, I have a list of song titles that could possibly work so expect some of these:**

**Blue Moon**

**Out of Touch**

**No Easy Way Out (Rocky IV song!)**

**Before He Cheats**

**Hello It's Me**

**Give or take a few.**

**Anyway, I'm going to my best friend Sara's birthday dinner tonight with her family at a Mediterranean Place and I looked up the menu online and it made me think of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding", which is going to have a sequel by the way!**

**Anyway…. Hope you liked the chapter! Peace from all the hippies of the world! =^-^=**


	13. Crazy Little Thing Called Love

Krista's two friends at the library- Ellie and Hannah- were around her own age. The two went to college together at Dillard University and were roommates in their sorority with six other girls.

Ellie was twenty-three years old. She had blonde hair like Krista did, that was natural but lighter, and hazel eyes. She was very quiet but, like most people, once you got to know her she would become more outgoing and bold. She had a boyfriend- Raymond, or 'Ray"- who would come to the library once a week. They met in college and he was the main reason she decided to stay in New Orleans after she graduated college with a Bachelor's degree and a major in American Literature and English, instead of going back home where her family lived in Tennessee.

Hannah was the same age, twenty-three. Since her and Ellie were best friends and lived together at one point in the sorority house, they decided to be roommates and share an apartment since they figured it would be easier with each of them paying half a rent instead of one paying a whole thing of rent, at least until they got more stable jobs and were able to save a little more money to use for the future. Hannah had brown hair and green eyes. She was outgoing, especially when compared to her best friend. She had a boyfriend too, his name was Jackson… Hannah reminded Krista of Carter in more ways than one, other than the fact that Carter never thought about guys, really.

Since her two friends invited their boyfriends for lunch, Krista did the same for Jonathan. His lunch break was the same amount of time as Krista from where he worked, and he got to take it whenever he felt like it. He worked at a garage that did repairs for both motorcycles and cars, so there were a lot of workers, so it's not like he wouldn't have a replacement while he was out.

"Hey, you doin' alright?" he asked her when they got to the diner the six all would be meeting at.

Krista nodded, "Yeah, I'm fine. Why?"

"Cause your dad called me saying to stay with you as much as possible, so I thought something might be wrong."

Krista let out a light chuckle. "Sorry about him, he just worries too much. Especially when one of us is out of the country and the other isn't."

Jonathan shrugged. "I respect that. He just worries about you. He is your _dad._"

"More like he smothers me."

"Like I said, I respect that. If I had a daughter I'd freak out like him too."

Krista gave a pleading look. "Please don't be like my dad and please don't turn into him."

Jonathan chuckled and kissed the top of Krista's forehead. "I won't."

-/-/-

_Why hasn't Carter picked up my calls?_

Rob Hazard met Carter at the bar he worked at one night. She had asked for a Jack Daniels, but barely even made a dent in the amount in the liquid, but they ended up talking. She was upset about something that happened with her friend and just needed a break from everything that was going on around her. After that night, he had asked her out and they went out on a few dates, and he asked her to be his girlfriend. She said yes, considering she liked him a lot- at least she was pretty sure she did. Carter never really had feelings for guys, but she felt different around Rob. Even happy, which was a pretty rare emotion for Carter to feel, especially lately under all the circumstances and stress.

But for the last week, give or take a few days, he hadn't heard from Carter and she hadn't answered any of his calls or texts. _Did I do something wrong?_ He asked himself on more accounts than one. The whole time while he had been going out with Carter, he thought he was doing a good job. Sure, he hadn't dated too many other girls in the past, he wasn't what most people would call a "Chick Magnet", but he had girlfriends as a teenager and throughout college, and he was only twenty-five. But either way, he knew he probably didn't do _everything_ a boyfriend should do, but live and learn.

Carter had given him a few phone numbers as they continued to date so that if he couldn't reach her, try one of those numbers. He didn't exactly know why, and when he asked her why, she said she couldn't quite tell him _yet_, and that she would tell him as they continued to go out and they got to know each other better. He kinda blew it off after that, but still saved the numbers in his phone. He never thought he would actually have to use one of the numbers- but here he was, clicking the 'call' button on the contact that Carter said to name _"Lauren Christmas- Carter's best friend"_.

After three rings, he heard a female British voice, "_Hello?"_

"Uh, hi… do you, uh, know Carter Ross?" he asked.

"_Yeah, she's my best friend. Who is this?"_

"Uh, my name is Rob. Rob Hazard. Maybe Carter's mentioned me before? We've been going out a few weeks now."

He heard a gasp come from the British girl on the other line. _"You're Rob?!" _she screamed.

He flinched and pulled the phone away from his ear phone a moment. "Yeah, I'm Rob. Is this Lauren?"

"_Yeah… ok, so I know you're with Carter, but why do you have my number?"_

"She gave me five phone numbers to try in case I couldn't get in contact with her for some reason. The others she said to name: Julia, Maria, Raina, Kai and Lauren. And you're Lauren."

There was a pause from the girl. _"Makes sense."_

Rob gave a confused look and shook it off. "Look, the reason I called is cause she hasn't called me or answered my calls, so I figured I'd call you. Is she around?"

All happiness left Lauren's tone. _"She's not, I'm sorry."_

"Oh… is, uh… do you know when she will be?"

"_Uh, no. Again, I'm sorry. How about, I'll have her call you or I'll call you when she's back, depending on situation."_

Rob tried to hide any confusion in his voice. "Uh, yeah. Sure. Thanks, Lauren."

He hung up the phone and slid it back into his jeans pocket. He walked back into the bar, knowing his break was over. The tone in the girl's voice had changed when he asked if she knew where Carter was and to be honest, the sudden change made him nervous. He was nervous about… well, he didn't quite know what he was nervous about. He just felt something was wrong- Carter not around, Lauren's change of tone at a sudden question, and Lauren not knowing when Carter would be back. It all gave him a funny feeling.

-/-/-

"Who was that?" Maria asked Lauren, not looking up from the file.

Lauren looked up for a moment then back down at the file as she shrugged like nothing happened. "Just an old friend of Carter's."

"How do you mean _old friend?"_

Lauren hesitated then sighed. "Ok, if I tell you, you gotta swear not to tell anyone else or Carter will kick my ass."

Maria looked up and made and 'X' over her heart with her finger. "I swear, now spill."

"Ok," Lauren started and lowered her voice, "Believe it or not, Carter has a boyfriend." Maria gave her a blank look. "No seriously, she has a boyfriend. Rob Hazard. I just talked to him."

Maria's eyes widened. "Wait, really?!"

"Yes, really! I just told you that!"

"I never thought she would ever think of guys like that. But why'd he call you and how does he have your number?"

"Apparently, Carter gave him all of our numbers except for Krista in case he can't reach her, he can call us to see if we know where she's at."

"Makes sense."

Lauren chuckled, "That's what I said."

The two girls were looking over the file they were given for what felt like the billionth time now. By now, almost all of the Nighthawks knew the file front and back all the way through by memory. The same thing went for the Expendables.

Lauren had contacted Carmen Ambrosio for help in finding her friend, Rosalinda Santiago. She was dating the man in charge of the trafficking and apparently, even some drug selling operations both underground and above ground out in the streets.

"His name is John," Carmen said about the man.

Lauren perked up at the name John, then slumped a bit in her seat. She hadn't heard from Latura in months, ever since the two mercenary teams started working on this assignment. Whenever she would call him, he wouldn't pick up. Whenever she would text him, it still only said 'delivered' under the message instead of changing into 'read'. She had tried his college more than once, but every time she called, they said he wasn't around and wouldn't be till fall classes started back up again in September.

"Like I told Lauren, he's an American," Carmen said, "And he had an accent. But not the type like those people in American movies, at least not most of them. More like your friend Carter had, but it's not as strong as hers."

"So he had a Southern accent?" Lauren asked.

Carmen nodded. "Yes, that's what it's called. I forgot cause those two American accents confuse me. He had a Southern accent, but it wasn't strong, like he was from the Northern part of America then moved to the South."

"Can you give a description of what he looked like?" Kai asked her.

Carmen shook her head. "No, I'm sorry. It was dark when I saw him with Rosalinda. I only got his height, he's about Lauren's height. But if I heard his voice, I would know it."

Lauren leaned forward in her seat. "Are you absolutely one-hundred percent sure that you could identify his voice?"

Carmen nodded at this question. "Yeah, I'm sure."

"Ok," Lauren nodded, "To help us, would you mind coming with us when we go back to the tunnel? I mean, we have two less members on our team and the same goes for the Expendables. And to be honest, you know more about this guy than any of us combined. Even his voice."

"I don't know…"

"We would arm you," Julia said.

"And you wouldn't be alone while we're all there," Kai said, "We've had other people with us before working with us. You would be perfectly safe."

Carmen sighed and nodded, "Alright, I'll do it."

**Ok I know it's been like forever since I updated this and even everything else I'm working on, but i have a very good reason: I wasn't feeling good. What I mean by that is that I didn't feel sick, I just didn't feel good emotionally, I guess I would say. There was a lot going on this week about one stupid little thing (which is cancelled so that made me feel better) but cause a lot of tension between me and my parents and my mom said at one point, "you're a teenager, your say doesn't matter" even though in this case it would matter cause it was some trip that only I would be going to, not my parents but that kinda messed me up for a week. I won't get into details but I will say that since everything was settled (Finally) I'm feeling better and going to the Turtle Back Zoo with my two best friends this Friday and went with them to Point Pleasant Beach last week.**

**Anyway, hope you enjoyed the chapter! Peace from all the hippies of the world! =^-^=**


	14. She's Like The Wind

Carter, Lee and Barney got weaker and weaker with each day that passed. Would any of the three of them admit to it thought? Of course not. The three of them all had too much pride to even begin to admit to even one ounce of pain, or even the slightest headache or discomfort. Barney, Lee, Caesar, Gunnar, Carter, Lauren, Krista and Maria were the ones who would usually never admit to anything like that.

Being brutally honest, Carter was in the worst shape out of the three of them. Even with Barney in his late fifties- in a year or two he'd be sixty- and Lee being in his early forties: Carter was still a girl. If she wasn't a girl, she would've been able to heal faster while they waited for everyone to come and get them. The reason she would've been able to heal quicker is that she was younger than her father and her "uncle". She was in her twenties, which meant that her body was in better shape that the two older men. But being held hostage, there was one problem in being a girl: she was treated worse than Barney and Lee. Both the Nighthawks and the Expendables had noticed this over the years, that for some odd reason, girls being held hostage were treated worse than guys.

Other than worries about how much longer they would be stuck there, when the Expendables and the Nighthawks would get there, whether Lauren got back to New Orleans yet or not- which was a major concern to Lee- Carter's well being was the main worry of the two middle aged mercenaries. Carter knew it too, so she tried to hide her discomfort, but she felt she was failing miserably.

-/-/-

"She still hasn't picked up any of my calls."

Carmen Ambrosio was with members of both mercenary teams, trying to get in contact with her friend Rosalinda who was supposedly dating the man who was in charge of the underground human trafficking along with drug dealing. Carmen had kept calling and each time there was no answer, along with no response to her text messages.

"How many times have you tried calling her?" Kai asked her.

Carmen shrugged and let out a sigh, "I don't know… about ten times or something like that. Plus I've sent about fifteen text messages and left voice messages with every call."

"Why don't we just go then? No offense, Carmen- but for now, we should just forget Rosalinda. We gotta get my dad, Barney and Carter back," Lauren sighed.

"You're right."

"Ok, so the Expendables are handling all the weapons and such, we've all already gone over the plan and what we're gonna do to get in to the tunnel. You'll be with Caesar and Maria the whole time."

Maria spoke up, "We figured you'd probably feel uncomfortable being alone with a guy you barely know. We thought maybe you would feel more comfortable with a girl along with you. Sure, you don't know me _too_ well, but we just figured it'd be better if one of us was there with ya. Caesar agreed… we were right?"

Carmen gave a weak smile and nodded. "Yeah, you were…"

"So it's settled," Lauren said, "We'll go to the forest tomorrow night and the tunnel. There are ten of us in total. We'll all be separated into a few little groups, that way we can go in different directions of the tunnel and can cover up more ground. Like I said, it'll be Carmen, Caesar and Maria. Then Julia and Kai. Raina, you're will Toll. I'll be with Gunnar and Yang. Everyone clear?" Everyone nodded at her.

-/-/-

Krista laid down on the couch and bent her arm over her eyes and forehead and let out a sigh. Her eyes were shut to try and relax.

To say she felt miserable was and understatement- or at least for now it was. She knew that in the next half hour, at most, it'd be like nothing had ever even happened. It had been like that for about two months now, and if Krista was being honest, it was getting better. She knew that would happen, at least that's what the books she had read said would happen. Supposedly, it was normal.

Jonathan sat on the other end of the couch and Krista placed her head on his lap. He took Krista's hand and rested their hands on her shoulder as he laced his fingers with hers and began to softly rub his thumb over her hand. "You doin' any better?" he asked her quietly.

Krista sighed, "I guess so… I know I'll be fine in a half hour." She let out a slight chuckle.

Jonathan chuckled and placed his free hand on the top of her stomach. "As long as it's supposed to be happening and it's normal."

Krista nodded. "According to books, websites and the doctor- it's normal."

Jonathan and Krista had decided that they wouldn't have a big wedding. They arranged the whole thing in a week and a half. They found a priest in a small church in town where he was willing to do the wedding for them. It was just the two of them and a few other people they invited: Gunnar of course, Ellie, Hannah, Ray, Jackson and Rob- one of Jonathan's friends. Jonathan wore black dress pants and a cream colored button up shirt and a light brown tie. Krista wore a cream colored dress that ended right above her knees and resembled a dress like the ones that Debbie Reynolds wore as Kathy in her 1952 film with Donald O'Connor and Gene Kelly, _Singin' in the Rain_. It was loose to some extent so it fit perfectly, yet both of them knew that the priest and people signing their marriage papers and license and such thought they were having a shot gun wedding, but they tried to ignore it since they both knew it wasn't true and so did Gunnar and their friends.

Krista would've liked to have had Carter, Lauren, Maria, Raina and Kai there along with their dads- but with everything going on, it wasn't the best idea. Sure, she had talked to all of them except Carter, but either way, they were all probably in Mexico by then. Plus, it was already said and done, and Jonathan and her were already legally married.

"You gonna go to the library today?" Jonathan asked.

Krista shook her head as she sat up; she already felt better. "No… I still have some things to do, like getting my name on my license and stuff changed to have the last Williams instead of Jensen."

"Want me to come with you?"

"It's fine don't worry. I'll be fine on my own."

"You sure?"

Krista chuckled. "I think I'll be fine, babe. I used to be a mercernary, ya know."

Jonathan chuckled. "True… think you'll ever go back to doing that with them?"

Krista shrugged, "I don't know… unfortunately, I doubt it. Maybe in thirty years though I might. Like when I'm middle aged like my dad," she chuckled.

Jonathan chuckled again. "Do you miss it at all?"

"Well of course I do. But you and me both know I would've had to stop soon anyway. Even if Carter wasn't mad at me right now, I would've been a complete dumbass to go to Cancun with them."

"You've been watching too much _That 70s Show_ lately, you sounded like Red Forman." Both of them laughed at that.

Would Krista have liked to go with the Nighthawks to Cancun? Of course she would've. But even in if she wasn't in her current position or condition, Carter would've cut her anyway with how she was acting. Though, technically, it was her condition that made her act so crazy and so hostile and everything, but she wouldn't give that up just to be a mercenary again.

-/-/-

Rob's shift at the bar was nearly over. He had decided to try and call Carter again. If she didn't pick up, maybe one f her friends would if he called them. When he got outside at the end of his shift to his motorcycle, he pulled out his phone from his pocket.

_How about, I'll have her call you or I'll call you when she's back, depending on situation._

That phrase started playing over and over in his head. Rob remembered the conversation he had on the phone with Carter's British friend, Lauren. To be brutally honest, the whole conversation confused to nearly no end. What did she mean by _depending on situation_? Was something wherever the hell they were in the world? He figured there must've been something wrong with Carter, just by the way that Lauren's tone changed at the sudden mention of Carter. It just worried him. It was almost like she disappeared like wind in the fall.

Rob continued to look through his contacts and stopped when he saw his childhood best friend's name pop up- who he still had contact with regularly- Jonathan Williams. He didn't have too many friends to call, but he always knew and trusted Jonathan. Plus he needed woman help and Jonathan was his only close friend that had a meaningful relationship. The guy was married and having a kid with his wife for crying out loud.

HE clicked the call button and waited till the ringing stopped. _"Hello? Rob?"_ he heard in Jonathan's voice.

"Yeah, hey man. What's up?" he asked, trying to start conversation.

"_Nothing, really. I'm here with Krista… oh, she says hi."_

"Hey Krista."

"_So what's up?"_

Rob felt slightly awkward even though he knew Jonathan nearly all of his life. "I, uh… I gotta ask you some things. Can we meet up somewhere or something?"

"_Uh, yeah, sure. Come here would ya? I don't wanna leave Krista alone for now."_

"Yeah, course."

"_Alright,"_ Jonathan agreed, "_See you in a few." _With that, Rob hung up.

**I know it feels like forever since I've updated! Sorry! I'm better emotionally (I think so, I'm pretty sure I am) so there's that. But nearly this whole week, I've been having my two best friends over, plus I finished reading the last book in the North and South trilogy by John Jakes and I watched the three episodes with my mom (I didn't like the show- the first show was better and more accurate with the book) plus I bought Rumble Fish and That Was Then, This is now and finished Rumble Fish in a day and a half- it was amazerful by the way, I love S. E. Hinton and John Jakes, they're my favorite authors EVER… and I've read a lot of books.**

**Right now, I'm watching Jonah by the Big Idea prodcutions agency (which is Veggietales) and I have no shame, especially when the "Second Chances" song started up and I was smiling and laughing like I would when I would watch this when I was little and here I am, sixteen in a little less than two months- I have no shame.**

**By the way, for those on fanfiction. Net- you probably noticed my username changed here to 1980s-popito. I chose that with the help of my two best friends cause we all randomly started going on about a character named Popito from some anime I believe but we spell it with o instead of e, and I like people and movies mostly from the 1980s so there ya go.**

**Anyway, hope you liked the chapter! Peace from all the hippies of the world! =^-^=**


	15. I'm Alright

Krista sat up straight at the sound of the doorbell. It was an apartment building so there was a doorbell system throughout the building, with a camera where the main entrance was then was hooked up whenever someone rang to the doorbell but only to that specific apartment. Jonathan got up from the couch and went over to the door. "Who's there?" he said through the speaker that was hooked up to the camera. Krista heard, "It's Rob." She heard the door open then close and about a minute later do the same thing. Both Rob and Jonathan came into the living room and sat down. "Hey Krista," Rob greeted her with a smile, "How you doing?"

Krista gave a small smile back. "Hey Rob, I'm alright, thanks. Can't complain."

Krista didn't really know Rob that well. She had met him a few times and he had attended her and Jonathan's small wedding, but she didn't know her like a close friend or like how Jonathan knew him. The only reason she knew him was because she knew him and her husband were close friend ever since they were little kids. But from what she did know of Rob, he was a nice guy.

"So what did you need help with?" Jonathan asked his best friend.

"Woman trouble," Rob sighed.

"Should I go then?" Krista teased, causing laughter to fill the room.

Everyone finally calmed down and Rob smiled at her. "You can stay… maybe you can help me out too. Maybe give an insight into the female mind or something," Rob chuckled.

"Well I ain't like most girls 'round here if you haven't noticed." There was slight tease in her voice when she said that to him.

"Well, neither is Carter."

Krista's eyes nearly popped out of her head. "Carter?"

Jonathan nodded at her. "Yeah, Carter. That's his girlfriend's name, Carter Ross."

Krista's face lost all of its color and her eyes widened so much that only a faint ring of blue showed. She had told Jonathan about Carter before, but her actual last name was mentioned as much or as often as you would see a black rose growing in America. And Carter isn't a terribly uncommon girl's name, so he obviously thought it was just some other girl named Carter.

Jonathan placed one hand on Krista's shoulder and his other against her forehead gently. A worried expression found its way to his face. "Krista, are you alright?" he asked her with a concerned tone.

Krista shook herself back to reality and looked down for a moment then back at Jonathan. "Uh, yeah… yeah, I'm alright," she answered in a tone quiet enough to be a whisper.

Jonathan didn't look convinced by her answer one bit. "You look really pale… are you sure you feel alright?"

"Yeah, I just, uh… can we all go outside on the patio or something to talk? I just need some fresh air, that's all."

Rob stood up from his seat and grabbed his jacket. "Maybe I should just come back later on…" Rob trailed off.

Krista rolled her eyes. "Guys, really, I'm fine… can't you two just trust me?"

Jonathan gave her another unsure look. "You're sure you're alright?"

She gave him a quick kiss. "Yes," she said and turned to the patio door, "So are we going outside to talk or what?"

-/-/-

"You gotta relax, they're fine."

Julia had spent the last five to ten minutes trying to calm down Lauren- who had been pacing nervously the whole time. Julia suspected that her friend had been having a weird mix of something in between a panic attack and a nervous breakdown. It was understandable if she was: she was unannounced into being the one in charge of the whole mission- in which her father, her best friend and her 'uncle' were being held hostage in a foreign country. Not to mention how her boyfriend- John Latura- who had supposedly been lying to Lauren about his whereabouts. It had been building up inside of her for such a long time now, all her stress was bound to come out one way or another.

"How do you know that?!" Lauren shouted, "For all we know, they could be dead! Three of the people I care about most in those whole damn world could be dead!"

"Even if they are, what is freaking out like you are right now going to do about that?! I'm sorry Lauren, but to be honest, just freaking out about the whole damn situation isn't going to help anyone and you know that!" Julia yelled back.

Lauren stared at her for about five seconds with an expressionless face. After those five seconds, Lauren fell down onto the edge of the couch with her face covered and buried in her hands, muffled sobs made their way from behind her hands. She was curled up into a ball form on the couch and began to fall off. Julia ran over and held her up and nearly dragged her up into the back corner of the couch. Julia sat down next to Lauren and rested her hand on her friends back in attempt of some sort of comfort.

"Do you think that they killed my dad, Barney and Carter?" Lauren asked and took her hands away from her face, her voice shaky and quiet.

To be honest, Julia didn't have a clue on how to answer. "I don't think they did," she answered trying to hide her uncertainty.

"Ya know," Lauren sniffed, "Carter had mentioned it to me how she's been thinking of letting us all go… like that she might quit the team… I might join her in that."

Julia nodded, understanding how the two felt. "To be honest, I've thought about quitting the team a few times myself. And if I'm right, so have Maria, Kai and Raina."

"Maybe we all should just do that."

"What?"

Lauren sighed, "I'll talk with Carter… maybe we all should just end the team after this. Leave this life behind and live normal lives for once in our lives."

"I wish it were that easy, cause you and I both know that it's not that easy at all."

"I know… but Carter'll know."

"I guess… you alright now?"

"I guess I am… sorry about that little freak out."

Julia waved it off. "We're all crazy and have little freakouts once in a while."

-/-/-

Carmen and Kai sat and went over the last details of the assignment and their inventory and everything they would need and everything they already had. It was Kai's job every time, and Carmen being there made the whole thing easier. The whole process was also quicker by having four hands instead of two and two brains instead of one.

"Kai?" Carmen started, "Can I ask you a question?"

Kai looked up at her and nodded. "Yeah, of course," she answered, "What's going on?"

"Actually, it's more of a statement than a question."

"Ok, sure. What is it?"

"I found out the man's name… the man we are going after."

Kai perked up. "You did? What is it?"

"Well his first name is John, and I think that his last name starts with the letter L."

Kai thought for a moment, trying to think of any possible "John L's" she might know. She shook her head, "I can't think of anyone I know or have heard of with that name, but it really does help a lot. Thanks."

Carmen smiled, but her smile faded a bit a moment later. "I wish though that I could tell you that Rosalinda called me back."

"It's alright… it really does help a lot that you got part of the guy's name."

Carmen smiled and Kai smiled back at her. As the two continued to finish taking up their inventory and packing up their things, Kai finally remembered a guy she knew that had the name "John L".

-/-/-

They all piled into the van that Carmen had rented for them all to use. All the small bags of what they need or would need were packed up and they all were already wearing their needed gear.

"Everyone ready?" Lauren asked everyone as she started the van. Everyone answered with their own form of 'yeah'. "Then let's go," she said and drove off in the direction of the tunnel entrance on the beach.


	16. You're My Best Friend

"It's locked," Carmen whispered.

Lauren looked at her then aimed her gun at the lock then pulled the trigger and held it down until the lock on the door burst open. "Not anymore," Lauren said.

The others seemed unphased by her action but Carmen seemed to be shocked. She slightly nudged Maria's arm. "Is this normal at all?"

Maria gave a questioning look. "Shooting the lock open you mean?"

Carmen nodded, "Yeah, that."

Maria gave a small smile and nodded. "Believe it or not, yeah it is." Carmen gave an unsure nod and Maria chuckled.

The door creaked a tiny bit as Yang opened the door so that whoever walked in of them all could fit. With the exception of Lauren, Yang and Gunnar, everyone hid in the surrounding bushes. They all turned on their ear pieces and microphones along with their night vision goggles. "You go when you hear us tell you too," Lauren said through her microphone, "Everyone got that?"

"_Got it,_" she heard in a few different voices.

For the mission, along with Lauren, Gunnar and Yang were in charge. There were a few reasons that this was decided. For Lauren: it was her father, her best friend, and her 'uncle' that were the ones being held hostage. For Gunnar: he was the biggest hothead of them all and with him at the front, it just made sense. For Yang: aside from Lee, he had the most stealth while fighting, so- like Gunnar- it just made sense.

When the three went in to the tunnel, they turned right. "Caesar and Maria, go straight and turn at your first left," Lauren said over the microphone. The three heard Caesar and Maria as they ran through. This continued as each group was in the tunnel and the door of the entrance now had their own lock on it so no one could get in or out without being heard.

"Is everyone in?" Lauren whispered over the ear phone and microphone, her answer was multiple "yeah's" again.

"_Uh, Lauren," _she heard in Caesar's voice, "_We found where Barney, Lee and Carter are being held."_

"What?! Where are they?!"

"_Well you told us to turn at our first left so we did. Then the only way we could turn from there is right and so we did and we found this locked room. We called into the room through the door cause-"_

"Why the hell did you do that?" Gunnar growled, earning a stern look from Lauren.

"_If you'd let me finish, Gunnar," _Ceasar snapped then continued, "_We could kinda see what was in the room through a small crack two guys and a girl that all looked like the three of 'em. So we called called their names and they called back."_

"Where are you all now?"

"_Back around the corner," _Maria answered.

"_Soldiers came and now they're patrolling the area," _Carmen said quietly.

"Well why don't we bring Raina and Toll here, leave Julia and Kai where they are and go to help out Carmen and Caesar and Maria to get Barney and Carter and Lee?" Yang suggested.

"_We have no problem with that," _Toll said over the ear piece.

"_Us either,"_ Caesar said.

Lauren nodded. "Alright… once Raina and Toll get here, we'll head over by where Caesar and the three of them are."

A couple minutes later, Raina Caesar and Toll Road showed up where Lauren, Gunnar and Yang were waiting. Once they got to where Carmen, Maria and Caesar were informed where they were, they were on their way. When they got there, all six peeked around the corner at the location where the three were being held hostage. Two guards stood in front of the door.

"Julia, Kai, Raina, Toll… you all need to go at opposite sides where they're being held. That'll be a distraction so we can get Carter, Barney and my dad," Lauren instructed, "And all of you tell me when you get there."

Everyone did as they were told. Once the distraction was cause, the six mercenaries who had been waiting ran to the room. Since Caesar had the biggest and the most powerful gun, he shot the lock and the door handle. It burst open like the lock outside. Once the door opened, the two team leaders and second in command all looked at them with some sort of expression of excitement.

-/-/-

Carter, Barney and Lee all perked up. They had heard the sound of a lock bursting open just like when they first got there. For a few minutes they could hear a faint echo of running footsteps. After that, someone started to pound their fists against the door. "Barney? Lee? Carter? Are you guys in there?" they heard someone with Caesar's voice yell through the door.

Barney got up and ran over against the door. "Caesar, is that you?"

"Yeah. I'm here with Maria and Carmen. Lee and Carter are with you, right?"

"We're all here," Lee called and helped Carter stand up.

"Alright… we'll be back in five minutes to come and get you guys."

Barney turned back to his friend and his daughter, both looking better than they had since they all first got there, and he was probably the same way. Were they dirty? Yeah, a little bit. Were they smelly? Not as much as you would think they would be. Were they hungry? That would be complete understatement. Other than all that though, they weren't in _terrible _condition.

A few minutes later, the door burst open. The three of them cringed a bit at the sudden burst and sound of the bullet that broke the lock and handle. When they opened the door, Lauren stood there along with Gunnar, Yang, Maria, Carmen and Caesar- who was obviously the one to shoot the lock of the door so that it would open.

Though she had a slight limp, Carter went over to her British best friend and hugged her tight. Lauren hugged her best friend back just as tight. Once they let go, Lauren ran over to her father and hugged him even tighter than she did Carter. Lee hugged her just as tight, happy that his daughter had obviously gotten back to New Orleans safely.

Once the reunions ended, Barney, Lee and Carter were supplied with their own ear pieces and guns and ammunition and night vision goggles. When Carter questioned whether or not she could go on her own or not, her automatic answer she got from everyone around her- except for Carmen- was no.

"Even when you're hurt, you're stubborn," Lauren chuckled as they started through the tunnel, causing Carter to chuckle as well.

-/-/-

"Think they're back yet?" Krista asked Jonathan.

Jonathan shrugged a bit, "When were they supposed to leave, again?"

Krista shrugged. "I think about a week or two ago? I don't know."

Jonathan glanced at her as he pulled into the parking lot of the doctor's office and stopped in one of the spots. "You really miss them, huh?"

"Is it that obvious?" she chuckled lightly.

"Well you made up with everyone, didn't you?"

'Not Carter… and to be honest, it's her that I wanna make up with the most."

"No offense, but why's that?"

"To be honest, I don't know… our friendship is kinda weird."

"You two are friends? When I always heard you talk about her, it was mostly arguments that you two had."

"I know," Krista sighed, "But believe it or not though, we're pretty good friends."

Jonathan nodded, 'I get it… when they get back from Mexico, they'll probably call you or your dad will. You can settle everything then."

Krista nodded. "Yeah, I guess so. We should probably go in so we're not late for the appointment."


	17. Daylight

**I guess this chapter should technically be T for some more vulgar language than the rest of the story**

For the assignment, there was now one more group due to the fact that Barney, Lee and Carter were all stubborn. The two groups were now: Gunnar, Carter and Lee. Then Yang, Lauren and Barney.

By now, the tunnels were filled with "soldiers". If you asked any of the members from either the Expendables or the Nighthawks, they were more like Jasper and Horace from the original cartoon version of _101 Dalmatians_ from the sixties. As far as they were all concerned, these goons they were up against might as well have been Jasper and Horace, and the guy they were after was Cruella DeVille.

To be brutally honest, every jasper and Horace they came in contact with in the whole tunnel couldn't put up any sort of fight and was shot down dead in ten seconds at most. They all found it quite funny though. Not the fact that everyone was dying, but the fact that none of these guys knew how to fight. They fought like the people that were in horror films being attacked. Or like the girls in most of the cliché "chick flicks".

"These guys are pathetic," Carter whispered as they all walked quietly and slowly through the tunnels to find where the guy they were sent to kill was.

"Yeah I know," Lauren chuckled quietly, "Remind me again how they managed to get a hold of you then?"

Carter gave Lauren an annoyed look. "You know you should learn to shut your mouth sometimes, really," she teased her best friend.

As they all neared the control center of the whole underground tunnel system, a new wave of "Jasper and Horace's" came through. No one was shocked at the fighting skills- if that's what you want to call whatever the hell they had- of those guys. Except there was one guy who managed to shoot Carter in her leg, mostly the fault of her having a limp already. Another guy aimed his gun at Julia, but only managed to graze her left forearm.

They all finally reached the control center of the whole underground operation after about twenty five minutes. "I'm going in there," Lauren said, "I want Caesar, Maria and my dad to come in with me. The rest of you, keep watch in case any more goons come around in case we missed any."

Everyone nodded in agreement while Kai began to inspect Carter's bullet would and Julia's grazed arm.

-/-/-

"If I had some sort of clamp I could get the bullet out and just wrap some sort of cloth around it," Kai said quietly.

"Oh!" Carmen jumped up and pulled something from her belt, "Will tweezers work?"

Kai's eyes widened for a moment and she accepted the tweezers. "Uh yeah, thanks."

Raina nudged Carmen as Kai worked. "Where'd you get them tweezers from?" Raina asked.

"My pocket," Carmen shrugged.

Raina rolled her eyes. "I know that, what I mean is why do you have it with you?"

"Well cause Toll mentioned the possibility of there being explosions."

"So?"

"He told me a few stories of times when they had to disable an explosive and he said it's easier with tweezers."

Raina thought for a moment and nodded, "He's right."

Kai looked up at them as Carter bit down a yell which came out a small screech. "Well Carmen, you may want to get a new pair of tweezers," Kai said.

"Why's that?" Carmen asked with a confused look on her face.

Kai held up the tweezers- the majority of it covered in blood- that held the bullet in between the end. "This is why…"

"Sorry Carmen," Carter breathed out quietly.

Carmen gave a look of both sympathy and disgust- sympathy because Carter was already in a lot of pain and had been through a lot, disgust at the blood covered tweezers. "It's fine, don't worry about it," she said.

Their conversation was cut short as Kai tied a handkerchief around where the bullet hole was as Caesar, Lee and Maria came out where the rest were and closed the door behind them. "Where's Lauren?" Julia asked.

"You're never gonna believe who's in there," Lee said and pointed to the closed door.

-/-/-

"I can't believe this, you son of a bitch," Lauren growled.

When her, Caesar, Lee and Maria first went into the room, they were expecting to see some sort of evil mastermind. Someone like General Garza and James Munroe back in Vilena, or someone like Jean Vilain. That, they were all used to, but when they walked in and saw John Latura- Lauren's boyfriend since high school- to say they were shocked would be an understatement… especially Lauren.

When Lauren saw him and his look of shock and even a bit of regret on his face, everything began to connect in her head and make senses. Why he hadn't been able to visit for the summer like he originally said he could and would. Why he wasn't on campus taking any summer courses like he usually would. Everything began to fall in to place… and it made Lauren absolutely furious.

"Lauren, let me explain," John said and gently took her arm.

She yanked her arm away from him. "Don't you dare touch me!" she snapped and backed away from him, her eyes filled with rage.

"Lauren, please just let me explain…"

"Fine… you give me an explanation in the next ten seconds and maybe I won't kill you."

His eyes widened for a moment, knowing she could and she would. "Ok," he started, "Remember my uncle who died a year and a half ago?"

She nodded, "yeah."

"When he died, he… he put it in his will that I would be the one to take charge of his _business._"

"So you've been doing _this_ for a year and a half now?"

"Yes," he sighed.

"Did you ever think of, oh I don't know, shutting it all down since you were the one put in charge?!"

"I tried."

"You obviously didn't try hard enough, you bastard!" Lauren yelled, "And what about this girl _Rosalinda Santiago_ I've been told about?"

His eyes widened again then he sighed. "I'm sorry Lauren."

"I'm sorry too, you son of a bitch," she said through gritted teeth. She pulled out her gun, aimed it at his head right in between and above his eyes and took off the safety switch, "Goodbye John." She pulled the trigger before he could say anything else. She walked over and stood over his lifeless body for a moment. "Wasted love… I just wish I could get it back," she mumbled then turned to leave the room.

-/-/-

Carter got up off the ground after Kai finished tying the handkerchief around her leg and leaned on her father's shoulder as Kai went over to look at Julia's bullet graze. When the door opened and Lauren walked out, everyone watched her curiously. "You ok?" Carter asked her quietly.

Lauren shrugged and sighed, "I guess… but I would be lying if after everything that's been going on with him it didn't feel a little good to shoot him and not get in trouble." She teased and chuckled.

Carter chuckled. "You're absolutely mental, you know that right?"

"You may be right… I may be crazy," Lauren teased as they all walked and left the tunnel. She heard Carter laugh then saw her smile as the got outside. "How's it feel to be out of there?"

Carter smiled and leaned a bit more on Lauren's shoulder to steady herself. "It feels great to finally see daylight again."

**Hi there! Yes I updated three times today, feel special. I shall now update you on my life.**

**First, this chapter "Daylight" is not a song, it is a Sylvester Stallone movie from 1996 I believe, but it is from the 90s. in my other expendables stories (only on wattpad) I have the main mission chapter a title of a stallone movie so I figured I would do the same here.**

**Second, I changed the title of the earlier chapters so that they are songs as well.**

**Third, me and my two best friends Sara and Alex (andra) went to Barnes and Noble and were able to meet Candace Cameron Bure! (DJ from Full House and Fuller House- which I can't watch cause I don't have Netflix)**

**Fourth, I bought a new movie with Humphrey Bogart and Audrey Hepburn called "Sabrina" from 1952 and it was amazerful! (I love Humphrey Bogart and classic Hollywood actors and television)**

**Fifth, I started a new fan fiction that is for "St Elmo's Fire" since I feel like that movie is unappreciated- which is why I had Lauren say "Wasted love, I just wish I could get it back" cause Judd Nelson said that when he played Alec Newberry so that was that.**

**Sixth, I start school next Monday! I will have a more flexible schedule though cause I will only have three high school classes and the rest are college courses- it's hard to explain, so if you're curious how my online school program works just message me**

**Seventh, I'm going to cracker barrel with my friends Alex and Sara and their family (my second family) for their mom's (my second mommy) birthday tomorrow, then with them next Wednesday to the Japanese bookstore and general store for ice cream and such I'm so excited!**

**And finally, there is only one chapter after this, but it's basically an overview of the future for each of the girl's. alright, peace from all the hippies of the world! =^-^=**


	18. Largo al Factotum

_**Carter Ross**_

A month after their mission in Cancun, Carter quiet the Nighthawks- in which all six girl followed. She had been in physical therapy for a total of three months, considering all she had been through while being held hostage in Mexico along with being shot in the leg. While she was in physical therapy, she had made up with Krista.

After she could finally stop going to physical therapy, Rob proposed to her and the two were married two months after that. Carter got pregnant not long after, which unfortunately ended in a miscarriage- along with her next three pregnancies. Her fifth pregnancy, the baby stayed. It was harder than most pregnancies, and the delivery lasted a little over thirty hours. Either way, she knew she wouldn't have regretted any of it, but all the hardships she dealt with for the previous nine months left her mind when she held their baby. It was a little girl that they named Brett Adelia, after the character of "Brett" in the _North and South _trilogy written by John Jakes. They had another baby, a little boy named Charles Augustus, also from the trilogy. The family eventually moved to California after Rob got a job there working at a movie production company, but visited New Orleans every summer and Christmas,

_**Lauren Christmas**_

Lauren went back to England after the Cancun assignment. While she was there, she met a guy named Noah Lane. He had gone to the military a year after high school instead of going straight to college. He was in the military for four years. He had gotten accepted into a college in Atlanta, Georgia.

Noah proposed to Lauren on his graduation day, and they got married that fall. Instead of having their own kids, they adopted four, in which they chose their names and adopted them as babies: a girl named Evangeline "Eva" Rose, a boy named Andrew Noah, another girl named Andrea Leslie, and another boy named Evan Joshua. The family stayed in New Orleans.

_**Krista Jensen**_

Krista eventually went to Carter and apologized for everything that happened before Cancun, and Carter did the same. Things were still awkward between them for a few months, but that eventually went away and it was like nothing happened.

Krista and Jonathan had their first baby, a little boy named Jackson Gunnar. Their second baby was a boy named Dallas Jonathan. Their third baby was a girl named Brooklyn Ida.

Krista eventually began to take online college classes. She did that for two years and got a major in history. After another two years, she got her teaching degree and became a history teacher. Once she sent in her first application for teaching, she got the majority of her tattoos removed- with the exception of a few that were in place in honor of her parents. The family eventually moved to Baton Rouge.

_**Kai Yang**_

Kai moved to New York City to study to be a reporter and learn about broadcasting on both the radio and television. While she was there, she made a group of friends but still kept in contact with everyone else. She also studied in Europe for a few years.

When she got a job at the radio station in New York City, she met George McDonald. The two dated for three years, then took a break which only lasted a week then dated another two years. They got engaged and got married another year later. They didn't have their first baby until five years later, a little girl named Annabelle Violet. They stayed in New York City and would visit New Orleans every Christmas.

_**Raina Caesar**_

Raina went to college and earned her PhD and became a doctor. She worked in the pediatric center without any intentions of ever getting married.

She did end up getting married; to another doctor named Ronald Scott. He worked for about two years in the pediatric building at the hospital. Eventually he signed up for the doctors without borders program and went to India for six months, then moved to New Orleans with Raina. They got married five years after their first date. Their first baby was a little girl named Raquel Maria. Their second baby was a girl named Rachel Monique. Their third baby was a baby boy they adopted and named Ronald Michael Jr. The family moved from New Orleans to Baton Rouge to Monroe, then eventually to Vermont.

_**Julia Road**_

Julia went to the military for three years and was stationed in Iraq. When the three years were up, she went to go visit some family back in Cape Cod before going back to New Orleans. On her way back, she met a guy named Nicholas Johnson, who asked her out on a date since they were both headed to New Orleans.

After a few months of dating, they got engaged. Instead of having a large wedding, they got married in a court- eloped. The couple opened a restaurant in New Orleans. They only had one baby, a little boy named Thomas Edward.

_**Maria Flavin**_

Maria worked in her father's tattoo shop for about a year until she opened her own shop. It became popular, which eventually led to her opening a few others, which led to a chain that she owned. Along with visiting every one of her shops once a year, she worked fully at the original store. In that store, there was a worker named Dean Kelly.

Dean had asked her out every week for three months and Maria said yes to go out with him when it reached four. After a year of going out they got married. Their first baby was a boy named Steven David. Their second baby was a girl named Joselyn Taylor. Their third baby was a boy named Lucas Anthony.

**This is officially the end of this story! Thank you to everyone who stuck by me through this long story and long waits and thank for reading! I love you all! Peace from all the hippies of the world! =^-^=**


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